Bassnectar’s musical recipe:
Recognizable sample
A subtle beat laid over the original sample
Things get a little quiet
Then womp, womp, WOMP, WOOOOOOOMMMMMMMPPPPPPPP.
Repeat.
Although sometimes formulaic, Bassnectar has created a style of music popular among a mainstream college audience. The sounds of Bassnectar fit snugly into the living room of any house party on a Friday or Saturday night. That will be magnified as Bassnectar plays to a sold-out McDonald Theatre tonight.
Sold out nearly two months prior to tonight’s show, Bassnectar is clearly a person who has created a name for himself in Eugene.
Bassnectar, real name Lorin Ashton, is the product of a laptop musician generation. Using technology and a keyboard (not the instrument), Bassnectar has woven catchy Billboard-topping hits with homemade beats. The overriding sound that defines his musical style is a wobble beat drop that intensifies the music sample he uses as a foundation.
“A free-form project that merges music, art, new media, social involvement, and community values; dedicated to a constantly evolving ethos of collaborative creation, self reinvention, and boundary-pushing experimentation,” is how a press release describes Bassnectar.
Coming off as sometimes conventional, the womp, womp, womp bass drops hit in rapid succession, making his music perfect for listening to on substance-induced nights and impossibly irritating anytime else.
Since this concert happens to be on a Thursday night, the former applies to Bassnectar’s ability to sell out the McDonald Theatre in such a short amount of time.
Bassnectar is a person who doesn’t play an instrument, but has the musical audacity to sell out the same venue as The Flaming Lips.
Bassnectar may not be able to sing vocals in tune with the smallest of Eugene’s bands at the smelliest bars, but he can mix their music and play it on Eugene’s biggest indoor stage to a crowd jamming and sweating to his organized electronic mix.
The dance party scene is familiar territory for the 31-year-old San Jose, Calif., native now based out of San Francisco. Although his long, grungy hair makes him look more like a metalhead, his concerts are typically played in front of a late-teen, early-twenties urban audience of high school and college kids.
Since his early years as a DJ, Bassnectar has constantly focused on engaging the audience. Huddled over the modern version of a turntable, he mixes and plays a number of songs from the seven albums he’s made since 2001. In DJing, club-esque fashion, behind him is typically a massive amount of bright pulsating lights that intensifies the live experience.
For those who were able to snag the tickets that were in high demand, they’ll be in for quite possibly the closest thing to a Euro-dance club that Eugene will see in 2011. For those who missed out, a smaller version can be created in a living room with a lot of friends, an iPod and some flashing Christmas lights.
Either way, tonight Eugene will be going, “Womp, womp, womp, woooommmmmmmpppppppp.”
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Bassnectar to womp it up at McDonald Theatre
Daily Emerald
February 2, 2011
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