Absolutely beautiful chaos. This is what you did experience as you entered the Colorado Convention Center for the City Beyond Tomorrow, Decadence. Put on by Global Dance, one of the leading production companies in the nation, Decadence is the leading NYE Dance celebration in the United States! Year in and year out, they bring some of the biggest names in the scene to the mile high city for two nights of pure epicness. This year some of the artists that Decadence booked were; Armin Van Buuren, Bassnectar, Louis The Child, Troyboi, Gramatik, The Floozies, Porter Robinson, Borgore, Zedd and so many more! Hosted with top quality visual and audio production, Decadence is the place to go to for the ultimate stimulation of your eyes and ears!
They upgraded the stages from the previous years, with increased lighting throughout the stages and different lighting design on the ceiling. The upgrade of the audio exceeded all expectations though. In previous years the sound was incredibly loud, which is prime for covering a max of 40,000 people, but this year they kept the loud volumes and made the hi and low ends so incredibly clear and crisp, that the incredibly loud factor didn’t hurt like it did (in extreme situations) in the previous years. Even standing at rail, where the speakers are the loudest, the audio was nothing but crisp and left no ringing ears for after the shows. So I enjoyed some of the biggest names in the scene and saw them bring their “A Game” to an event where everything and everyone is on their “A Game”… it was just insane and absolutely the perfect example of beautiful chaos.
Kicking off the 30th, Getting Abducted into the Bass Dimension by Space Jesus
Decadence is one of those events where music is absolutely packed from start to finish. Perfect example of starting off on the right foot is exactly what they did to the Grid stage by having one of the most talked about psychedelic bass artists in the scene start off day one. Space Jesus is an artist that is currently ‘On the Rise’ as over the past couple years his music has absolutely popped off! With absolutely brilliant and exotic sound design, Space Jesus has produced a distinct sound and a unique following of Space Fam. With this stage hosting, Tchami, Louis the Child, Troyboi, Bassnectar, Gramatik, and the Floozies, Space Jesus was the perfect way to kick off things weird and wonky and get ready for the pure annihilation of bass. Check out this little clip of him throwing down an unreleased collab into a nasty remix of DMVU’s “Bloccd.”
Worst Set Time Conflict – Special Performance vs Special Performance – Tchami vs Get Real
Because Decadence is packed from start to finish.. sometimes the artist conflicts are a real pain in the ass because making decisions with dank music vs dank music is extremely hard! Especially this year as their two Special Performance spots were filthy deep house producers/DJs, Tchami and Get Real (Claude VonStroke + Green Velvet,) and they overlapped practically at the same time. So being an extreme fan of both, I split the sets in half! I caught the deep/bass/ bass house that Tchami put out and it was just insane but getting that weird tribal techno house from the OG’s was an absolute pleasure. Get Real is a rare gathering and getting to see them in that environment was near perfect. Nothing but the best of vibes.
Locked Down and Ready For Bass
The amount of people that come to this place consistently blows my mind. This was personally my 6th year attending, second year doing media, and it never ceases to amaze me seeing the sea of people that come for this event. Because of how many people and how big this place is and with the hype of Bassnectar consistently growing with no stop in sight, I knew I just had to get my spot in the middle and hold it down until the chaos ended. We found the sweet spot during Louis the Child, where we were comfy among approximately 40,000 other people and danced our night away. Following the beautiful set from the young duo of Louis the Child, the New Zealand Trap superstar, Troyboi took the stage and threw down some of that classic and rustic trap beats. He threw down a new song, Heyboi, which you can listen to here.) After all that trap, “The King of the Sound” came on stage for an hour and half of pure mayhem. He played practically his whole new EP, Reflective part2, mixed in with insanely bass heavy songs that some I have never heard before, Bassnectar played a flawless set as this was his 5th year performing at Decadence. Check out how PACKED the stage is as it is for sure, Bassheads came ‘from miles around’ for this legendary set by Bassnectar!
End the Night w/ the Funk, it is The Colorado Way
What can we say, Colorado lovesssss that funk. Following that gnarly Bassnectar set on the Grid Stage, Gramatik ripped the guitar and laid out fresh riffs along with nasty bass. This took many people by surprise as he is known for some truly funky stuff, like his classic and older work, which he threw down, but he also kept it fresh by throwing in some insanely dank songs. And if Gramatik wasn’t enough, its ‘All Good’ because the Floozies took the last performance of the night on the Grid and it was just beautiful! Their selection of funky music and unique production separated the Floozies from all the rest. The duo, who are brothers, can absolutely shred live as one, Matt, on the guitar and decks and Mark just went ham on the drums. Together the two absolutely tossed down the funk and created a party unlike any other. Check out their end in the City Beyond Tomorrow!
BORGORE KICKING OFF NYE
Kicking off NYE and Day 2 of Decadence right with some grimestep by one of the O.G’s of dubstep music, Borgore. Back in the earlier days of Borgore’s initial music career, he started as a drummer for a metal band. Over the years he got into production of electronic music and DJing but with his experience, he incorporated his drumming talent into the production in the studio. As a result, his songs are not only complex and full with perfect snares, hi hats, and other drum samples, but his unique take on dubstep has landed him a branded name for a musical genre, Grimestep. Borgore is an artist that knows how to party and kicking off day 2 of decadence was leading the party vibes in the right direction.
Porter Robinson [DJ Set] is Everything That You Ever Wanted From Him and Then Some
Another prime example of Beautiful Chaos was when Porter Robinson showcased his flawless talent in a DJ set. Before his Worlds album and live performance, Porter Robinson did a plethora of DJ sets and absolutely wrecked crowds across the world. Once Worlds came alive and he changed the musical game, his path changed, and he had to show the world his talent. His album ‘Worlds’ was nominee for Best Album of the year for when it was produced, and is still one of the most talked about albums in the dance scene. When Porter Robinson got announced as a DJ performance for Decadence… people lost their shit. This hasn’t happened in years and he brought it back recently and to have it in the City Beyond Tomorrow… it was just beautiful. He played his music but still mashed it up in such an epic way.. just take a glimpse at some of the beauty that was experienced on NYE.
Nothing But Amazing Vibes With Odesza Taking Us From 2017 into 2018
You could feel it in your bones… the anticipation rose as we grew closer to Midnight. With Rufus Du Sol leading Decadence into Odesza, the vibes were absolutely spot on. Rufus had a tribal sound that just left you feeling like you were on an expedition in a jungle. Following that unique set, the timer began to quickly count down. An hour and 20 minutes of Odesza, with 20 minutes of that set being in the New Year. You couldn’t have asked for a better way to end 2017 than with Odesza playing one of their classic’s… “Sun Models.” It was a moment that brought a tear to my eyes! Check out this special moment below as basically all of Decadence was at The Grid Stage for Odesza’s NYE performance.
When the Local Gets You, Your Whole Crew, and Everyone on Team Red Dancing Harder Than all the Major Headlining Artists That Played at Decadence, You Know You Have Yourself a Prodigy
After practically all of Decadence entered the New Year together at Odesza’s set, the crowd dispersed across the venue and started evening out the masses. This was the ideal time to go jam out to some filthy music in a silent disco. At the Silent disco there were three channels, all with a different genre of music. For the first hour of 2018 it was: Blue – Deep House , Green – Techno and Red – Dubstep / Bass. While every artist at the silent disco was amazing and projected epic vibes, team Red, led by T.O.C. made the silent disco absolutely move their feet and bang their head. It was insane! Never seen so many people switch to one station, at one point I only saw one Green headset along with 3 or 4 blue and the rest was red… and that is because we were getting “Totally Outta Control” from Tom O’Connell. This Colorado grown headbanger has been slaying the scene for a couple years now and with Global Dance taking recognition in his filth, he has only been growing and increasing his fan base. With NYE events being perfect for a recap of that year, T.O.C absolutely blew the roof off with his brilliant production and talented mixing. I, among many other of my friends, had not danced that hard all weekend, and when a local gets ya moving harder than world renowned headliners, you know that artist is going to be huge! Support your local dankery.
Starting 2018 in A State of Trance
After absolutely getting disgusting at the silent disco, it was time to end the City Beyond Tomorrow with one of the biggest acts that they booked. Armin Van Buuren. The saint of trance of music. One of the Original DJ’s and producers who was apart of the origins of Trance music, with his musical career starting back up in 1996, he has seen the world and played at all the major events and clubs. With this much expertise in DJing and production, you can only expect so much because you never really know what he is going to do. He had played an extremely energetic set that dove through all the spectrums of trance music, as he played out beautiful trance, hard trance, and even psy-trance. Hell, he even played hardstyle because thats how Europeans do it! He went hard and all of Decadence was hypnotized in a State of Trance. Check out his banging song with “Vini Vici – Great Spirit.” Armin also did a beautiful remix of Linkin Park’s – In the End – where it literally sounds like he breaks down every note and brings it back into the lovely trance remix. (Click on the link here to watch the Linkin Park Remix.) Following Armin, but keeping those vibes high, Zedd took the stage and ended out Decadence with his clever mixing and nerdy on stage presence. For one hour, it was nothing but straight party vibes as Zedd mixed in some mainstream music but changed it up to the energetic house and electro that he is known for. Below the Armin video check out a little clip from Zedd’s performance!
Thank you for reading! We hope you enjoyed this recap! You can check out our full gallery at: Decadence Colorado Gallery
Thank you Global Dance & Decadence for this beautiful opportunity, as always, I couldn’t imagine spending NYE anywhere else than at home in Decadence.