Excision, Protohype, Southside Ballroom, Dallas
DALLAS – The entire venue was packed.. Thirty minutes before the show and you couldn’t walk through the front stage crowd. According to security, over 2,500 tickets had been sold. Show goers had split into die hard fans, smashed up as close to the stage as possible or those who wanted to take the show at their own pace at the back of the venue. A pulsating beat was already playing, helping to hype up the crowd. A massive screen was set up in front of the DJ’s booth with hypnotic swirls and pulsating pictures. Kids were already showing off shuffling skills or playing with their different lights. There were guys with light-up gloves, and jugglers with glowing orbs trading techniques with the owner of a swinging pendulum light, a mysterious figure shrouded in all black. Everything was glowing neon. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that this was a giant party.
EDM has a very open drug culture. People in the crowd lighting up and puffing out clouds from their joints, cigarettes and e-cigs. Kids were tripping on molly and passing around tabs of ecstasy. The bars had a steady line all night. Fans were here to have a good time regardless if that was sober or not. This was an anything goes, no-holds-barred show. No fights broke out between groups, which went all the way from scantily clad “rave girls” to muscled up jocks to guys in Teletubby cosplay. This show was one big party.
The opening act was Protohype and he sure lived up to his name. Here was a DJ who knew how to work a crowd, constantly increasing the speed of the beat or even delaying the bass drop until his crowd begged for it. He moved around the stage, called out to his fans and even had them sing along. This guy was a rock star! His songs flawlessly transitioned into another with each having their own sound. Nothing was off limits when it came to sampling, pulling from Rage Against The Machine, Halloween-like orchestral clips, rap artists, female pop stars and even a little R&B. 
Every sound was a surprise. He used hypnotic images on the screen that moved as the music did, alternating speeds and pictures as bass dropped, hype built and the crowd cheered. The primary colors were black, white and a blue. As it got closer to the time when Excision was slated to play, the screen displayed more pink and yellow colors and geometric shapes. This was the first cue that they were switching artists.
Normally at a concert when the artists change over, there is a distinct halt in music. Lights come on and everything moves around on stage. The crowd usually starts talking amongst themselves, and the rhythm and excitement from the previous artist dies down. At this show however, Protohype introduced Excision with a piece they had been collaborating on. Protohype started the song off, sampling a song the crowd knew. Then he came from behind the booth to sing it along with his fans while Excision took over fully. It was flawless. Excision continued to blend his and Protohype’s styles for the first 15 minutes before fully
moving over to his distinct sound. While Protohype was certainly a stage man, Excision lives in the shadowed booth behind his screen. He let the beats become this ethereal presence. The flashing lights do all the talking for him. The music slows down only for the artists he was featuring to deliver the punches before hyping out again. Much like the substances many people were on, Excision was all about visual and auditory overstimulation. The whole show was set up for stimulating the senses, smell of weed in the air and sweaty bodies, bright flashing colors, otherworldly music. This was like nothing else on this earth.
Article by: Morgan Musteen
Photos by: AJ Miragliotta
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