This is a movement.
These crowds, these people, these individuals are not of this realm. As the Best Buy Theater in Times Square in the heart of New York City filled up, shapes of all sizes occupied the room. There was no pinpoint genre or label. All of these people were here for the music. Fuck what you look like. There is something magical in that sentiment. Clad in fitted hats, pins collected from all around the country, and pupils the size of dinner plates. These are the new age hippies, these are the kids who were born from tie died Allman Brother loving parents. They were introduced to good music at a young age and have now evolved. It's the new generation of Woodstock and they're here to groove just like their parents were.
Space Jesus took the stage with a wild eccentric ferocity that floored the crowd. Heavy. Weird. Bass. It's intriguing to hear this fresh newly sculptured bass music. He has this peculiar and mysterious sound that is so heavy you have to go hard for it. The music perfectly fits the crowd at Best Buy Theater, doing his own thing not giving a shit what other people think and totally enjoying himself. You can tell he is by the ear to ear smile every time that dope bass booms through the speakers. He intertwines unusual samples from Dr. Suess movies, Italian men singing opera but the must alluring one being Aladdin's "Arabian Nights." It had the crowd going off. If Space Jesus is playing in your city, go check him out!
Orchard Lounge was an interesting act to put on this bill. I felt as though they should've opened up the show rather than be sandwiched between Space Jesus and Tipper. They are an extremely talented duo but deep house in between two psychedelic bass acts seemed a bit out of place. However the whole crowd was grooving, although I don't know if it was because they had no other choice or because they were actually enjoying the show. It was curious sight to see a bunch of new age hippies jam out to house music. Nonetheless, they were entertaining.
Now for the man of the hour. Tipper is just on another level. His sets are life changing. The winding, drilling, psychedelic bass music accompanied by the Johnathan Singer visuals can lead to a cathartic experience. The new stage setup debuted that night in New York, which moved Tipper out of the way of Singer's eye-popping art, and closer to the front of the stage, which not only gives fans an unadulterated look at Johnathan's visual story, but brings Tipper right up close and person, for a perfect view of his audio acrobatics.
There is a certain trans-dimensional energy that occurs during his sets that can only be understood by being there. No photo or cell phone video could ever do it justice. When seeing a talented artist perform live they guide the vibe of the crowd and usually don't need an extras to accompany them. Same goes with Tipper, he doesn't need anything extra but what he brings to the table so far execeds your expectations it's hard to put into words. His mastery of the turntables and scratching guided by hallucinogenic beats should be enough, but no. He takes it to a whole other celestial plane with the visuals. Once the show ends it's hard for your brain to comprehend what has happened but you know you want to experience it again.
The journey set, which starts completely beat-less before gradually increasing the energy and the tempo, followed the all out romper on New Year's Eve with Bassnectar mere days before in Nashville, was the middle of three wildly different sets, capped off by an ambient escape for 150 lucky fans at Alex Grey's Chapel of Sacred Mirrors in upstate New York the next night, gave an insight into Tipper’s fearlessness and true artistic approach to how he entertains when offered the right palette to splash his art. Download this set for free, below, and truly understand the range of Dave Tipper.
[PHOTOS] Tipper & Space Jesus Best Buy Theater NYC January 3, 2015
