A little over seven months ago I journeyed to Hampton, Virginia to experience a two night event called BassLights. Not only did it provide me with the material for my first published article, but it opened me up to a whole new world of music. This past weekend I was able to build upon that first article, and that first event, by flying out to Denver, Colorado for the rebranded Bass Center hosted by electronic music mastermind Lorin Ashton, aka Bassnectar.

The event took place at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park just outside of Denver in Commerce City, Colorado. Soccer fields outside the stadium were converted to campgrounds, the roads and walkways leading to the venue taken over by hand-picked vendors and numerous activities in which attendees could partake. From the moment you turned down E. 56th Ave to get to the stadium, you could see the tents and Bass Center flags, as well as the towering stage peeking up from inside the field.

The lineup itself was worth the adventure, but the experience as a whole will last with me for a lifetime. Featured on the diverse list of acts were Minnesota, Lupe Fiasco, Flying Lotus, and Flux Pavilion on Friday July 29th, and Thriftworks, G. Jones, AlunaGeorge, Porter Robinson, and Wu Tang Clan on Saturday July 30th. Each night would conclude with an unbelievable extended set from Bassnectar, totaling close to 5 hours of music. The months leading up to the festival were filled with buzz, anticipation, and speculation about what might be in store for us when we arrived; but nothing could have prepared us for what we experienced.

A multitude of tents packed to the brim with beautifully crafted wares awaited campers as they left the campsites to make their way to the event. There were slip-’n-slides set up by the ambassadors, and even a color war where “crews” who had all come together for the event could take part in fun games like a water balloon toss, a three-legged-race, limbo, and more. Buses were converted to photo booths, and there were even separate fan parades themed after popular tracks “Pink Elephants” (Daladubz) and “Zodgilla.” Both parades encouraged attendees to dress up and participate and make their own parade routes.

Of course, no Bassnectar event would be complete without charitable contributions and community-driven projects. There were multiple donation drives scheduled for the weekend: on Friday and Saturday, attendees could make donations of school supplies to help support Denver Public Schools Foundation. On Sunday, anyone could drop off new, or lightly used camping equipment to support Groundwork Denver, an awesome charitable organization that provides a number of services to the greater Denver area. Both drives were a great success. Throughout the weekend, and inside the venue, the Conscious Alliance held a canned food drive that gave limited edition posters to anyone who brought twenty non-perishable food items, or a suggested monetary donation.

There’s also a new initiative that’s been taking place this year called the “Basshead Cleanups.” Since Bassnectar is usually a headliner, bassheads have been bringing garbage bags to events and cleaning up the venue after the smoke has cleared, and the lights have turned back on; maintaining a leave-no-trace mentality at every show they attend.

After spending most of the first two days writing about my experience, I was honored with the privilege of interviewing Lorin Ashton himself about how he pulled together such an amazing event. I will admit, walking into the backstage area and being shown the tiny room in which I would hold the interview was nerve wracking ― not because I was interviewing an artist who I had come to respect to an extreme degree, but because I had been working to get this interview for months, and it had all miraculously come together.

There was a knock at the door, and through it came Lorin Ashton ― Bassnectar himself. He ignored my outstretched hand and gave me a big hug; my anxiety was gone. We shuffled through some small talk and I got down to business.

Technically this is Bass Center 9, right? Can you elaborate on how this came together?

You know, I lost track but it probably is nine... To me it was more like, why don’t we make one big Bass Center a year? I wanted to bring a festival spirit, and a festival aesthetic to our show. Kind of combine what happens when we get together and throw a full on, immersive show versus when we’re just playing at a festival, and do kind of both. It’s been really hands on out there, the whole crew is building out these worlds, and these campgrounds, it’s been a tremendous amount of work. So usually I’m scattered and overwhelmed with any big, or important, event or show; just on the musical level. This has been, down to the granular. Worrying about everyone else’s set, everyone’s video, are the lines moving fast enough?

We’re also starting off this project that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time called “The Haven.” It’s kind of like a sanctuary space themed after the old-school ambient room from back in the rave days... There’d be waterfall sounds, and chirping birds, and massages; juice, tea, and bean bags where people could hang out and talk, and get a break from the intensity. That’s been a really exciting part of this event too.

You’re pretty well known for your special events, these massive productions. How do you dream up something like this, and turn it from a concept into a reality?

Well, we’ve certainly never done anything like this before so it wasn’t like I was following a blueprint. When I got my start with touring, there was no circuit, and there was no scene outside of select DJ clubs, areas on the west coast, and Burning Man. This was after the rave scene kind of fizzled out in the 90s. Not to say that things weren’t going on, but “rave” was a dirty word... there was just nowhere for DJs to play. So when I was touring at that time, every event was a kind of DIY event... It would be like taking over a jazz club in Mississippi, or a pizza parlor in Arkansas and dreaming up, “how can we transform this space?” As an artist at least half the art is facilitating people’s experiences. Music is very important to me, but there’s still another good half of me that’s just devoted to curating people’s experiences. So this is kind of like an extension of everything I’ve done... I didn’t realize how beautiful it was going to be until we were walking around Thursday night.

And when I went running around the camping last night, everyone was remarking that there’s like five, six-thousand people here and everyone is so friendly, respectful, and chill. It was just really touching to see that atmosphere. Some of the awesome festivals that I play at are just as friendly and it’s ruckus, and really wild — it didn’t have that, it had a much more deeply respectful, intimate, friendly vibe, and that’s really cool.

RZA - Wu Tang Clan

Minnesota

Porter Robinson

The lineup you’ve put together is really diverse. How did you get this group of artists together?

It was a long process of making huge wish lists. “So and so’s not touring this year,” or, “So and so just played Colorado and can’t come back yet,” and just narrowing it down. I had been trying for Kid Cudi and Aphex Twin and neither were available. I didn’t think I could get the Wu Tang Clan, so I didn’t really have them on the list. I really wanted to get Tipper, but Tipper was busy. Next thing I knew, I had this list, that basically was the lineup, and what was so weird is we went down the list and suddenly every single act that we wanted was available. In like one week [snaps] it came together, it was rad.

Your fans seem willing to follow you to the ends of the earth —

[Laughs] I don’t advise that.

Well, because of that, do you still feel the pressure to produce at such a consistently high level? Especially when it comes to events like this?

I feel immense pressure with every set. It’s kind of the pressure that any normal human would feel if they’re hosting a dinner party. You hope that the food comes out well, and you hope that everyone gets along and has fun. So I feel a lot of pressure like that at any set, even at a festival. I just musically want to delight people, and take people on a journey. The pressure I felt for this show was more than anything I’ve ever felt. The experience has been overwhelmingly positive, it just comes at such a cost. Hyper-obsessing over everything, and following every little path of what could go wrong. Me and my team have a very unhealthy type of OCD, it’s very artistic. We’re just hyper-obsessed with the details. Whatever was good last time, isn’t good enough this time. It’s cool to see everything all come together, and because the team is so big — we have about 250 people. It’s a massive undertaking, and everyone on the team has that same kind of vision: that we’re hell-bent on delivering total A+, above and beyond quality. Just because we want to, not because we have to.

We have an enormous sound system, it’s bigger (by far) than anything that would be put in this venue. We didn’t get it so that we could blast people’s ears, we got it because we wanted to evenly distribute it to twenty-four thousand people. I was in the back of the stands for sound check and it felt like you were at the front of the rail, and getting that kind of spread is really important.

After this weekend, there’s only a little over a month until your next special event in Atlanta, right?

Yeah, it’s funny ― when you were asking about the pressure ― that’s literally what’s coursing through my veins right now. Because, I’m like, “ok, I want to conjure up the most penetrating, enchanting, authentic, explosion of perfect music in my imagination, and share that tonight.” Then I’m like “fuck, I have to do this at Moonrise, then Summerset. Three nights in a row at Electric Zoo, Northcoast, and Nocturnal [Wonderland], and then do two nights in Atlanta.” And it’s not that I don’t have a lot of music, it’s more that I have an internal struggle between the value of what’s novel, and what’s good. A lot of times humans seem to respond to novelty even more than quality, and I try as much as I can to stay true to quality. So at any given moment, if I’m going to play a song, this might not be a novel song, but it’s the song I think is best for right now. If I played it a week ago, or if I’m going to play it at Moonrise, I still want to play it now because it’s perfect.

The good news is most of the stress, pressure, and work of this event were because I’m throwing an event. With the other stuff, it’s easier ― festivals, all I have to focus on is the music. With Atlanta it’s such a unique beast because I’m just trying to go back to the ethos of the rave scene. Which is just kind of like a gathering less than a show. So I don’t really want people coming expecting this or that, I want it to be something they come to, spend time together, and share an experience together.

――

After that, Lorin’s tour manager gave a knock at the door and my time was up - there were a million things left that had to be taken care of before the night’s final performance. The last thing that we had spoken about was how he manages to stay sane with all the obsessive, detail-oriented production and constant bouncing around.

“I don’t think I was sane fifteen years ago when started this. I spent about eighty percent of the time wearing the Bassnectar suit, and the other small portion actually being a human. This year, I took some time off and I’m attempting to get some of that humanity back. Ideally, if I could wear the Bassnectar suit fifty-percent of the time, and be a human the other fifty percent, I’d be happy.”

I thanked him for his time, and with that, he was gone. I had a lot to think about as I walked out of the hallways backstage and back into the craziness that was Bass Center’s churning mass of attendees.

By the time the sun had set on July 30th, 2016 the air inside Dick’s Sporting Goods Park was electric with anticipation. Excited Bassheads eagerly awaited what Lorin Ashton would give them when he put on the Bassnectar suit for the night’s performance ― and he did not disappoint.

Opening with a beautiful transition from Jimi Hendrix’s “Castles Made of Sand” to “TKO” (Feat. Rye Rye, and Zion I), he proceeded to dive headfirst into a raging concoction of heavy-hitting tracks that left many jaws hanging to the floor, including my own. There were multiple moments where the rattling bass from the massive subwoofers surrounding the park almost gave the feeling of a spaceship lifting off ― and there was our pilot, long flowing hair whipping around his head as he headbanged and continued to shock and awe with his mix.

There were multiple fan favorites throwin in over the span of his two-hour and twenty minute set including “Upside Down,” “Loco Ono,” “Ping Pong,” “Noise,” and “Immigraniada.” The latter, a collaboration with Gypsy Punk group Gogol Bordello, switches mercilessly from a heavy punk anthem to a strange and mind-numbing mixture of wobbling bass and distorted sonic frequencies. Sprinkled throughout the set were a number of deeper tracks and rarities that kept the bassheads going full throttle all night long.

As all good things must come to an end, so did Bass Center. Around 12:20 AM on Sunday, July 31st, Bassnectar thanked the massive crowd that stood in shock following his set, and exited the stage. The crowd slowly meandered out of DSG Park, many to go back to the campgrounds and continue their nights, digesting what they’d all just been witness to. After witnessing a couple of Bassnectar’s special events myself (and speaking to Lorin about all that goes into them), I can say without a doubt that the bar has been raised for what artists can create for their fans. I’m looking forward to what the man has in store for the future. If his plan is to continue to go above and beyond, I can’t even begin to fathom what could top this experience.