There was no shortage of excitement for Gramatik’s fourth annual show at Red Rocks Amphitheater. Founder of Lowtemp Music, and hailing from Slovenia, Denis Jašarević has certainly made a name for himself here in the US as a master of funk and bass.
Starting off the night was Flamingosis with his debut Red Rocks performance playing a smooth and laid back opening set of mostly his own originals.
Ekali was up next switching up the pace with some high energy music, expertly blending a wide variety of trap and dubstep.
After a quick 10 minute break, with the crowd’s excitement nearly palpable, the infamous Mr. Carmack took the stage. The musical prodigy from Hawaii played one of the smoothest sets I’ve ever heard. He opened with “Biotruth”, a song that was released early this year to raise funds for the Dakota Access Pipeline protest. From that, it was a seamless blend of all things hip hop and trap, ranging from relaxing mellow beats to some incredibly dirty trap bangers like his classic “Pay (For What)”.
Now I can’t speak on the past events, but Gramatik announced that his production featured a new and improved upgrade from the previous years. Modeled after a Tesla coil, the new stage was massive and the visuals were on point! Announced earlier in the week, the phenomenal producer Anomalie was on keyboard, and playing guitar was Adam Stehr who collaborated with Gramatik on his hit song “Native Son”. (He even offered to give free tickets to whoever offered to cut Adam’s hair!)
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The three of them made up a hell of a team, playing a whopping 3 hour set! Starting off with an older classic track “Day of the So Called Glory”, the first hour was more mellow and low temp with a couple heavier Grizmatik songs sprinkled in. Hour 2 picked up the pace a little, including a debut of Anomolie’s new tracks “Velours” and “Le Bleury” (coming out June 23).
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After a quick monologue and asking permission to play some heaviness, the last 45 minutes was a whirlwind of bass. He even help up a “Science is Cool” sign, which I think is pretty important now more than ever in this country. Overall it was a night to remember. Gramatik left a mark on everyone in that crowd, and we’ll all be talking about it for some time.
Photo credit: Midg_View