Skrillex - Discuss, Debate, Praise, Hate

[Guest KY]

One thing about being 27 is that you’re definitely old enough to be allowed to flippantly dismiss things high school kids are into, but not necessarily old enough to want to flippantly dismiss things high school kids are into. Which brings us to last night, when Skrillex — the 23-year-old dubstep king beloved by a giant mass of those who are young and impetuous and full of life, to the confusion of sensible adults everywhere — played New York’s Webster Hall, and I was there.

A few basic facts crucial to any “what is this Skrillex kid all about” reportage: His trademark look is shoulder-length hair with one side of his head shaved, plus a pair of what are basically Rivers Cuomo glasses; his real name is Sonny Moore, and he played in a screamo band called From First to Last before going solo and electronic; and he is the most commercially successful, and to some people most sacrilegious, U.S. importer of dubstep, a dance-music subgenre born in London clubs a decade ago. Also important: according to Kanye, Benny Benassi’s “'CINEMA (Skillex [sic] Remix)' is one of the greatest works of art ever made.”

 

You can hear that song here. It starts off slow and pretty and about a minute and 20 seconds in a robot voice says, "Drop the bass," and everything goes all “modem Internet dial-up noise as re-created by an army of extraterrestrial choral singers.” That, to my knowledge, is what most Skrillex songs sound like. That psychotically heavy "dropping the bass" squelching bit is integral to the Skrillex experience, which is why some dubstep purists dismiss him as overly aggressive. The derogatory term of choice is "brostep," which is pretty hilarious. (Vaguely related, also hilarious: this Tumblr of Kim Jong-Il dropping the bass with various DJs.) Meaning: You don’t actually have to go to a Skrillex show to guess as to why high school kids like him. His music is massive and reckless, and it’s great for late-night drug-addled dance flailing.

 

But it’s one thing to stodgily respect youthful decision making and another to actually sign off on it. Last night I entered the crucible of Skrillex, trying to — hoping to! — come out a convert. To that end, I brought along my 23-year-old brother, whose proximity to fresh-faced juvenility was a needed asset. The first thing he asked me after agreeing to come was which side of my head I was going to shave, and how much MDMA he should bring. (For the record, we did neither.) Later we found a Yahoo! Answers page titled “Would I die at a Skrillex concert?” (For the record, we did not die.)

 

When we walk in, at around 12:30 a.m., opening DJ A.C. Slater is still on. He seems to be doing a pretty good job of dropping the bass, to my ears, although his biggest cheers come when he samples Drake. I see a girl in Lady Gaga-style ripped black tights, studded heels, and a bowler hat. I see a guy in a battery-operated T-shirt that’s flashing a neon boombox. I see another girl in bumble-bee tights, a tutu, and a sports bra. For the most part, I see people who are really into not having sleeves.

 

A girl comes up to us, explains she’s from Brazil, and that she’s just lost her friends, but she’s the only one that speaks English so they’re screwed. She says they’re gonna do a lot of “yayo” later. She asks us if we’re doing “mad addies.” My brother shakes his plastic cup at her, says he’s sticking to whiskey. She yells out, “Old school!” then takes off. We talk to an Italian girl with a heavy accent who’s studying at Columbia, and she complains that the club isn’t big enough; when she saw Skrillex in the motherland, he played until 7 in the morning and there was enough room for her to jump. She demonstrates her jump. Then I go to check my bag, and accidentally walk through two people doing that thing where you have glow-in-the-dark finger attachments and you move your hands rhythmically and in sync while intensely staring into each other’s eyes.

 

And then Skrillex comes out, and shit. Gets. Real. Dressed in all black and puffing a cigarette, the dude starts twiddling and tweaking furiously, and I almost immediately castigate myself for ever thinking A.C. Slater knew how to drop the bass. There are girls on guys’ shoulders in their bras, and other girls in mini-shorts whipping their shirts off to join them. The kids are climbing on every available surface to shimmy and have commandeered the low speaker stacks and the side bleachers. One girl has an inflatable pirate sword.

 

We wade into the middle to see what the action’s like. Some bros are trying to shove around to start a mosh pit, but mostly it’s like that Italian girl showed us: people jumping, up and down, while grinning. Skrillex is hopping up and down too, sometimes with both arms in the air, sometimes just focusing on flipping his hair around in a cinematic fashion. Every once in a while he says stuff like, “You never cease to amaze me!” and, “New York, what’s going on?!” and, “Let’s rock!” but for the most part he’s locked in on twisting his knobs, which he does with brawn and focus. He also has a hip-hop-crew-style assemblage behind him. At first I’m concentrated on whether or not he’s actually doing anything up there, but I forget about that fairly quickly. One girl runs through the crowd and screams, “OH MY GOD I JUST CAME IN MY PANTS.” I take out my phone to write this down, and she yells at me, good naturedly: “THIS IS SKRILLEX. STOP TEXTING.” A large fellow is letting people know that, if they want, they can jump on his back.

 

I take a lap around the outside perimeter and am impressed: Every single person, it seems like, is dancing. There are clusters of pals in the back making their own dance floor, pairs of girls tucked away by the bar not even looking at the stage, and, of course, guys scrunching their eyes shut and going it alone. One guy’s wearing a Whiskeytown shirt and I am too shocked to not talk to him: “You like Ryan Adams' pensive, gorgeous, pre-solo country band and Skrillex?!” He’s either too drunk or too bored with what I’m saying to respond. Later, I realize his shirt is in fact advertising the Whiskeytown bar on East Third Street.

 

When we leave, around 3 a.m., the kids are still going. One girl’s moves are particularly impressive, seeing as she’s in a leg cast and crutches. You came to Skrillex with a broken leg, I ask her?

 

“Hell, yeah!”

 

Impressive, I say. She finishes whipping her head to the latest bass drop, then answers.

 

“It’s not broken, just fractured.” Pause. More head whipping. “And it’s Skrillex.”

 

http://www.grantland...t-with-skrillex

 

ha, really liked that article.

[kaini]

i just don't understand the young people these days.

[GORDO]

That just makes me wish that when I was young I had people to freak out spastically to drill with.

[Jaffa]

and here we are, 63 pages later? old skool old guard much? what the fuck do we know about being young or anything else?

[modey]

That review makes it sound like the gig was a lot of fun. I think that if we all stopped being such jaded fucks we might actually be able to enjoy something like that.

[kaini]

SILENCE. NO FUN ALLOWED IN THE SKRILLEX THREAD.

[Ivan Ooze]

i must say a lot of shittier "artists" won a grammy in the past

[oscillik]

That review makes it sound like the gig was a lot of fun. I think that if we all stopped being such jaded fucks we might actually be able to enjoy something like that.

 

actually that sounds like a nightmare. a bunch of kids jumped up on pixie stix and red bull

 

OMG

 

OH MY FUCKING GAWD

OHHHHHHHHHH MY GAWWWWWWWWWWWWWDDD

SKRILLEX

 

I CUM ON MY OWN TITS!

 

yeah no fanx

[modey]

lol. tbh I'm a bit sick of the whole IDM mindset of EVERYONE STAND STILL AND PAY ATTENTION TO THE GUY PLAYING SOLITAIRE.. I like to dance at electronic gigs, and it's even more awesome playing music that makes people dance.

[Guest KY]

That review makes it sound like the gig was a lot of fun. I think that if we all stopped being such jaded fucks we might actually be able to enjoy something like that.

well the atmosphere and crowd were well-described. i wouldn't like the music, but it would indeed be pretty rad—fun people can listen to bad music too.

[YO303]

You wouldn't dance to this ??

 

[Guest KY]

lol. tbh I'm a bit sick of the whole IDM mindset of EVERYONE STAND STILL AND PAY ATTENTION TO THE GUY PLAYING SOLITAIRE.. I like to dance at electronic gigs, and it's even more awesome playing music that makes people dance.

can't argue with you there.

[oscillik]

lol. tbh I'm a bit sick of the whole IDM mindset of EVERYONE STAND STILL AND PAY ATTENTION TO THE GUY PLAYING SOLITAIRE.. I like to dance at electronic gigs, and it's even more awesome playing music that makes people dance.

 

oh don't misunderstand me. i agree. dancing and shit is awesome.

 

but not adolescent OMG OMG OMG SKRILLEX I'M CUMMING.

[modey]

Haha, yeah that was a bit ridiculous. But then again, I'm sure many watmmers would do the same at an afx gig. Or boc or something.

[modey]

I think if you even coughed at a BoC gig they'd probably up and vanish like djinns

Ah, I meant, there would probably be a thick layer of semen on the floor from the watmm boc fanboys..

[oscillik]

Haha, yeah that was a bit ridiculous. But then again, I'm sure many watmmers would do the same at an afx gig. Or boc or something.

 

well this is exactly my problem with Skrillex.

 

Sonny Moore, as a guy and musican, he seems alright. Could probably actually have a fucking good laugh with him.

 

It's this jumped up, over testosterone/estrogen fueled bullshit from the fans that i cannot abide by.

 

I think if you even coughed at a BoC gig they'd probably up and vanish like djinns

Ah, I meant, there would probably be a thick layer of semen on the floor from the watmm boc fanboys..

 

i also hate this mentality, even here. and it's definitely why i left twoism.org.

[YO303]

Are BoC gigs even real? there are stories but i thought those we just myths.

[pattern recognition]

well this is exactly my problem with Skrillex.

 

Sonny Moore, as a guy and musican, he seems alright. Could probably actually have a fucking good laugh with him.

 

It's this jumped up, over testosterone/estrogen fueled bullshit from the fans that i cannot abide by.

and the music is shit.

[kaini]

I think if you even coughed at a BoC gig they'd probably up and vanish like djinns

 

if you coughed at a BoC gig ten people would glare at you and tell you to be quiet

[oscillik]

I think if you even coughed at a BoC gig they'd probably up and vanish like djinns

 

if you coughed at a BoC gig ten people would glare at you and tell you to be quiet

 

fuckinglol

[kaini]

i'm imagining a bunch of neckbeards throwing plastic hexagons and then frantically scrabbling so they can sell em on ebay after, and it's glorious.

[oscillik]

i'm imagining a bunch of neckbeards throwing plastic hexagons and then frantically scrabbling so they can sell em on ebay after, and it's glorious.

 

[autopilot]

You wouldn't dance to this ??

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP6QuOdHoYY

 

Dancefloor in 2012 would empty around 16 bars of that.

[Cryptowen]

I went to a BoC concert once. Well actually it was just a giant black box sitting in an alleyway, but man, you could tell they were trying to send a message through that black box.

[gmanyo]

My father informed me that Skrillex won a grammy. I said I knew that and didn't care, and he said that he thought I would like Skrillex because he's "a-melodic" and, get this, "inaccessible". Apparently my dad can't tell the difference between Autechre, Prefuse 73, and Skrillex.

 

I'm going to laugh really hard if we find out Steinvord actually is Skrillex. I hope he is.

 

 

 

Christwire is a joke.

 

Hey, I didn´t know captain obvious was a regular poster here.

 

I was pointing this out to someone who wasn't sure. I mean, it is pretty obvious, but then there's also Poe's Law. Multiple people were confused, and if they were just being sarcastic then hey, Poe's Law.