When I first heard that Grizmatik, the up-and-coming team project of DJs GRiZ (Grant Kwiecinski) and Gramatik (Denis Jasarevic) would be playing the 1STBank Center for Halloween this year, my only reaction was:
“Meh.”
Don’t get me wrong — Grizmatik has been tearing up the EDM scene, playing sets at both Snowball Music Festival and Global Dance Festival this year alone. The duo’s first single, “Digital Liberation is Mad Freedom,” had one of the craziest drops I have ever heard in an EDM song.
But here’s the thing — that first single is one of only two the duo has ever released. Maybe it’s just me, but when I drop money on a big concert, I expect the headliner to have a little more than a two-song repertoire.
And that’s not my only bone to pick. Halloween is the day I reserve for all the terrifying, scary stuff I normally don’t get into the rest of the year. I can’t speak for 2011, but when Skrillex came through Broomfield in 2012 with Knife Party, it was a case of sensory overload: pillars of flames, a haunted house façade flanked by graveyards, blinding lasers, massive screens projecting scenes from horror films and even a silhouette of a giant fanged mouth arching over the stage. That stage setup was made even more terrifyingly awesome by the roar of the crowd chanting along to “Internet Friends”: “You blocked me on Facebook… and now you’re going to die!”
Does Grizmatik really have what it takes to scare the crap out of 6,500 fans?
I suppose we’ll see. (Hey, I never said I wasn’t going to go.)
Contact CU Independent Entertainment Editor Sarah Elsea at Sarah.elsea@colorado.edu.
