Review: Bass Squad Vol. 3 ft. Munchi, Tittsworth, and Clockwork @ Gramercy Theatre NYC 1/21/12

Posted on Jan 23, 2012 in Big Room House, Moombahton, Reviews

I knew I was in for an interesting night when I first saw the lineup for the 3rd Volume of Bass Squad’s concert series. The show’s roster touted Tittsworth, Munchi, and Clockwork. Never in my life have I seen a one-shot concert with such diverse genre representation. Although many now know Tittsworth for his moombahbanger, Pendejas, he was originally a hardcore drum ‘n bass DJ. Similarly Munchi’s recent productions have been predominantly moombahton but he has also experimented with kuduro, bubbling, juke, and dub to name a few. Rounding out the spectrum was Clockwork, a young producer from LA whose big room house anthems have been decimating dance floors for months.

We arrived at Gramercy Theatre around 1:30 am to catch the second half of Tittsworth’s set. To my sheer delight, our ears were welcomed by the dark pounding of old school DnB. The dance floor was not particularly crowded, but those that had come out were there to get wild. After walking through the venue, my first critique was the surplus of VIP and All-Access passes. There were as many people dancing around backstage and floating in the VIP area as there were on the main dancefloor. I’m all for a packed stage of fans raging around the DJ during his/her set, but when it is just as packed as the main floor (which was already suffering from mediocre attendance), then there is something slightly amiss. Additionally, the VIP was underneath the stage and therefore completely sequestered from the music save a fuzzy live-stream from a television. Perhaps some people enjoy this (I’m not particularly well versed in VIP residency), but I did not intend to watch this concert on a TV from a velvet loveseat.

As such, I spent most of my time thrashing in the crowd. Dnb is not many people’s favorite edm flavor, but Tittsworth expertly crafted a genre-bending set that had everyone well-fired up for Munchi’s ascent to the stage. The big-haired moombah-star has always been one of my favorites to see live. With a giant grin pasted to his face, Munchi wasted no time dropping into a crunk’d out moombahton set. Although many cannot tolerate the genre’s piercing dutch sounds, one of my most emphatic commendations of moombahton is that it has brought sexy back to electronic music. Grinding, juking, and twerking finally have a place in the edm scene. So whether your hands were hoisted in the air or cupping the waist of another, both ravers and lovers were able to get down to Munchi.

For some reason or another, the set times were pushed back further and further throughout the night, so Clockwork wasn’t able to take hold of the decks until about 3am. Consequentially much of the crowd had been exhausted, which left Henry’s big room house tracks to be played out to a big [empty] room. Luckily for those left over, Henry performed a hybrid set, mixing together Clockwork anthems and an inspired selection of hip-hop, resonant of his other project, RL Grime. Despite the concert being absurdly under-attended, when Henry dropped his remix of “Levels”, everyone belted out Etta James and danced wildly in memoriam. Clockwork finished up his set with sense and grace. It was just unfortunate that the lack of people made playing out tracks from his massive Squad Up EP (forthcoming on Dim Mak Records in March), an obvious impossibility.

Although the organization and execution was somewhat wonky, Bass Squad Volume 3 afforded those who did came out an intimate exposition of edm from an amazing selection of producers. I look forward to seeing who they bring for Vol. 4…