Another Halloweekend has came and gone, with bloody bass and back-to-backs that will live on.
One of the reasons we love the American bass music scene so much is because no matter where you go, being surrounded by fans who love heavy bass makes you feel at home.
This was true in Waukegan, Illinois, this past weekend. FBI agents Chrissendit and Yesendit made the trek up north to Bass Station, as the venue hosted 45+ artists over the course of Friday and Saturday, Oct. 27 and 28, 2023. The event, DubStation Massacre, was hosted by DubHub, Ether Presents, WubLife, and Bass Station, with support from High Frequency, Submersive, EVOL Chicago and more.
Not only did the promoters say, "F*ck the budget," but they actually proved it. The venue was encompassed by gorey props, speaker stacks and riddim rats, crawling among the grounds. We also marked our territory to let everyone know of our presence.
What stood out the most was the fact that the riddim scene is alive and well.
This was demonstrated through some of the most unique b3b sets we've ever seen: ARTIX! b2b BLVNKSPVCE b2b SQISHI and the world premiere of Triple Threat: Dr. Ushuu b2b KILL FEED b2b Point.Blank.
The Triple Threat set was actually so fire that it set the alarms off as Dr. Ushuu was dropping Quasar (the song we premiered earlier this summer). Talk about HEAT.
One notable performance was MAD DUBZ's first-ever, U.S. solo set in the main room, where fans brought their highest knees and most contagious energy.
There was also an insane Masquerade Takeover on Saturday. Originally, it was supposed to be one massive b4b, but they split it off into two sets: Chango b2b 7 and Sanzu b2b Mongrel. This takeover comes hot off the heels of Sanzu's unbelievable performance (b2b VKTM) at the DubHub x Submersive Summoning Renegades just a few short weeks ago.
The weekend's anonymous headliner, yvm3, performed what was one of our favorite sets of theirs yet. They truly understood what the crowd was craving, while featuring some heavy riddim, including a Sosa Hi Tek edit and SweetTooth's remix of NEWS FLASH by KAYZO & Kamiyda+.
We consider this weekend a success given the seven arrests that were conducted. Artists like AlienPark, Chibs, Dr. Ushuu, Rane and Hershe were detained. Oh, and some of you even tried to cuff the FBI, but 99 percent failed to execute. The only artist who was able to detain us was Virus Syndicate who went sicko mode on the MAD LAB stage Saturday night.
As we've said before: Catch us if you can!
We did fail to detain one artist in particular who has been at the top of our Most Wanted list since Summoning Festival: SQISHI.
The man was last seen behind the DubStation mainstage, not only is he wanted for eating his own boogers at Summoning, but he performed a few citable offenses this past weekend. We have evidence that he was smashing bags of popcorn and throwing cheese from the rider. If you have details on this man's whereabouts, please contact the FBI directly.
Besides the spicy details of the case files above, stand-out sets from this weekend include: ANTIHERO, AlienPark, RAK, VERSA and Chibs.
What we can conclude is that the Chicago/Waukegan crowd likes to party. They're tasteful, yet aggressive, riddim fans who truly show out to support their favorite artists. And kudos to the promoters DubHub, Ether Presents and WubLife for pulling off a sold-out event that gave us just what we craved this Halloween.
Dubstep FBI Co-Founders ccmichelle & Yesendit can be found on socials.
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