By: Josh Krol

Leave it to Big Gigantic to turn an intimate club with deep, red walls and occupancy of about 700 in to what seemed to be a larger than life production in a crowded amphitheater.

They did that and much more when they made one of their final stops on their Winter Tour at The Vogue in Indianapolis earlier this month. While the thrust of the tour was supporting their latest album, Nocturnal, they had a lot of fun mixing in old school classics and new school remixes behind a breathtaking production.

Santa Cruz-based melodic dubstepper, Minnesota (Christian Bauhofer) opened for Big G and had the crowd swaying early. His fiery red hair bouncing in the laser light made the ground shake. Those floor vibrations probably came from the massive sound system The Vogue packed on both side of the stage, but Bauhofer’s slow dub roll under precision hip-hop beats helped shake the walls.

Just as the crowd began to turn away from the bar and toward the stage, he dropped his remix of “California Dreamin'” which was fitting as it was a chilly March night.

After running through a number of swagger-step remixes such as Chris Brown’s “Look at Me Now” and Rhianna’s “Dancing in the Dark,” the 21+ crowd looked like they were enjoying themselves. They tossed up bright neon, orange, and green colored balloons, smiled and laughed, and eventually hooped along the sides of the crowd.

Near the end of Minnesota’s set, a technical difficulty shut the power off to his laptop that created a clear disgust from the crowd. After his equipment powered back up he let Bassnectar’s “Bass Head” ring out just to make sure the crowd was still with him. Finally he turned up the bass even more and dropped one of his most popular remixes of Ellie Goulding’s “Starry Eyed.”

After a short break, Big Gigantic hit the stage. Both Dominic Lalli and Jeremy Salken took the stage with a smile as they each positioned themselves, and their instruments, in the middle of two large light-up columns. Before the duo unleashed their bass-infused jazz on the Indy audience Lalli had one thing to say, “Everyone give it up for Jeremy! It’s his birthday today and we are gonna have a great time with yall!”

With that, Salken crashed his cymbals as they broke into the title track from Nocturnal and the crowd started bouncing. When they weren’t playing, these Boulder boys were smiling and genuinely looked like they were having fun. After ripping through “Rise and Shine” and “Sky High” layered by a dub heavy breakdown the duo stopped and wiped the sweat from their faces.

Then they broke into the first few lines of “Hopscotch” before transforming into their popular “Notorious Thugs” rendition. Nearing the end of the set they kept rolling out the rest of Nocturnal layered with rap anthems. A drum solo introduced the crowd to “Heavyweight Champion” which rolled into Jay-Z’s “Dirt Off Your Shoulder” which got the crowd into a jumping dance party. Catching their breath for just a moment, they broke in to “Uprising” which then turned into what seamed to be an American anthem for past few years “I Need a Dollar.” Ludacris’s vocal track for “What’s Your Fantasy” provided the lyrics for Big Gigantic’s “It’s Goin Down.” Other remixes included Nero’s “Crush on You” fading into “Lucid Dreams.”

The crowd was left breathless and ecstatic screaming “BIG G!” After a few moments drummer Salken led the group back on stage, hat cocked to the side and sat down behind his kit while Dominic laced up his sax for a short but loud encore that included “All Night Long” and a cover of Wiz Khalifa’s “Black and Yellow.” Dom and Jeremy sent the crowd off with “The Beginning of the End” which for many who attended the event, it was only the beginning of the end of the rest of the night under the cool Hoosier sky.