If you hear the sound of bass thumping on Madison Street over the weekend, give kudos to the latest bass music tour for following through with its promise to bring the best sound system to Phoenix this Friday, October 28th.
The Safe in Sound Festival is a traveling indoor festival that has brought some of the biggest electronic music acts to venues across the nation since 2013. From Oct. 28 to 2 a.m. the next day, the fest will bring leading dubstep producer Borgore to The Pressroom, alongside LAXX, Terravita and more.
Frontman Jon Spero of Terravita — Safe in Sound’s resident DJ group that has been involved with the festival’s production since the start — said the tour differs itself from other festivals with an emphasis on quality music, rather than an excess of LEDs and props.
“It’s really based on the music and the sound,” Spero said. “There’s not a lot of bells and whistles to this tour. It’s very much artist-based and production-based, sound-wise, so we do try to bring out the best sound system to give everybody the best listening experience that they can actually have at a concert.”
While the sizes of the Safe in Sound Festival crowds have not expanded significantly, most stops on the tour have required no extra bodies. Spero said that every show has been either packed or sold out.
“The energy levels of the shows have been really fantastic,” Spero said. “To be honest, I don’t know how these kids do it, just rail-riding in the hottest temperatures for six straight hours. Who knows. I don’t think my body would even hold up to that.”
This success defies the frequently expressed idea that drum and bass music has died out. Spero explains its persistence as the outcome of a widespread need for emotional release.
“You mean it’s not dead?” Spero asks when asked about the genre’s tenacity in the frontlines of electronic music. “I heard it’s dead. I think it has a lot to do with the aggression outlet. Especially these days, life’s not easy. When people go out, they want to just let it go — cue ‘Frozen’ voice — but they’re trying to just get out the week and forget about their boss coming at them… It just allows you to have that release and I think that’s one of the most important things of it.”
In addition, Spero said bass music’s lack of boundaries adds to the appeal of the Safe in Sound Festival. This freedom allows Terravita to blend each member’s music backgrounds into each of the group’s songs, while still accomplishing large, headlining shows.
“You can incorporate hip hop, metal, rock, whatever you want,” Spero said. “The sky is really the limit. There is nothing that holds you back. I think it’s that freedom of this music that really made me fall in love with it in the first place.”
Terravita’s set will show off music from their LP, to be released next year. This will include a collaborative project with Adventure Club, as well as the majority of the group’s finished tracks.
Contact the columnist at Emily.Liu@asu.edu.
