EXCISION @ Congress Theater

Excision
Where: Congress Theater
When: January 26th, 2013
Grade: 4 out of 5 meatballs
Reviewed and Photographed by: Neil Miller, Jr.

Originally, I wasn’t planning on going to this show. I’ve seen dubstep both live and “live,” in many different venues and formats. I, personally, have come to a point where I need limits to be pushed and boundaries to be broken with the genre and its live presentation to even make me take a second glance. Well, hearing about Excision’s 100,000 watts of sound and 420 square feet of true-3D visual setup (dubbed the “Executioner”) had me interested immediately. After going to see the show like I knew I had to, it’s safe to say that Excision just might be one of dubstep’s saving graces in 2013.

The EDM genre as an entity has gotten much criticism for not really being that "live" onstage. When some of the bigger name artists are being accused of just pushing play (we’re not looking at you David Guetta or Deadmau5, who honorably enough, fessed up to "just hitting play"), we should thank the heavens that we have a forward-thinker like Excision. He’s already shattering the mold with his visually out-of-this-world and loud-as-fuck bass monster Executioner rig, but also about to move dubstep into truly live territory with his Destroid project, using custom-crafted MIDI-controlled "guitars” to control their show from anywhere onstage. If Excision’s show is any indication of what we can expect from that project — which also features dubstep heavyweight Downlink and the super-machine drummer known as K.J. Sawka — we’re going to be picking up pieces of our minds off of the floor in the near future.

The cohesion between the lighting and the visual setup was almost as much a star of the show as Excision himself… well, and his 100,000 watts of insanity. The Executioner would turn into a laser light, fog-fuming machine, and it was all perfectly timed to the lights firing off around the stage as well. The entire show was an otherworldly beast, like nothing I’ve ever seen, heard, or felt before. My favorite drop of the night had to be Destroid’s recently released collaboration with the Japanese “bass Godzilla” Ajapai, “Blast Off,” which had every head in the house bobbing up and down to its glitched-out beat and funky, fuzzified bass.

After the show was done and the house lights came on, I ripped my earplugs out and felt like I’d just awoken from a two hour mind-trip. The visuals, the sound, the bass… it was an experience like no other. Even if you don’t like dubstep that much, this is just one of those shows that needs to be seen at least once. If I could, I’d go again tomorrow and maybe not wear the earplugs as much. (And if I did go again tomorrow, I’d bring many sticks of deodorant for some of the guys standing around me.)