This has been quite an epic weekend for San Francisco. People from all over the country are flying in to see SHM’s last tour, and revel in the night life of the West’s most popular city. Though on Thursday night, my excitement had nothing to do with the house scene. No, I was looking for something a little more grimy, a little more bass driven. After comparing thoughts with those who took a different route, it was clear that seeing Feed Me was the right choice.
It was my first time at the Regency Ballroom. The general layout was comparable to a hollowed out Broadway venue, but boasted some of the best sound quality that I’ve heard in the city. Tijan opened first – an East Coast dub/trap artist who really caught me off guard. Though the room was filled less than halfway, the whole crowd popped to some classic trap beats, such as the Carnage Festival remix of Spacejam. He walked the line between dub and trap for the majority of his set, dropping some groovy reggae akin to Make it Bun Dem (Skrillex and Damian Marley) with a slower BPM. If this guy had been given the speaker power of a headliner, he could have really rocked the show.
Next was Mord Fustang, a personal favorite of mine. He started off with classics like Lick the Rainbow, and the crowd quickly began to fill up. I have to say, though, I was pretty disappointed with his show. Though this was only my second time seeing him, I would say he was stretching out of his genre to the extent that he lost his own flavor. Mord thrives within his more progressive sets, and he switched to almost exclusively dub during the second half of his performance. Though he was probably just adhering to the Feed Me crowd, it was still a little bit of a letdown.
“I was really sad he didn’t play ‘Welcome to the Future’ and his ‘in the Air’ remix. Those are two of his best songs and ‘in the Air’ is what made him famous,” twenty year old Hannah Lewis said.
Feed Me, on the other hand, brought everything I was hoping for. He kept the tempo at a surprisingly fast pace, relentlessly mixing drop after drop for an ear-splitting twenty minutes before reaching one of the scarce breaks in the show. When Relocation came on, the floor undulated to the beat with such force that I questioned the structural integrity of the place. With most of his songs sporting his unique, quieter intros (like Pink Lady or One Click Headshot), I expected to at least here a couple, but there were very little lyrics to speak of. His remix of Call Your Girlfriend was clearly a crowd favorite, and perhaps inspired his other vocal heavy favorite to close the show – Love is All I Got with Crystal Fighters.
In summary, Feed Me delivered, Mord Fustang entertained, and Tijan surprised. On a good night, though, this trio has the potential to melt faces, so grab some tickets yo!