After soaking in the main stage, we bounced to the bass stage, dubbed the Bass Asylum. Vincent, a Canadian artist, was throwing down a set so hard we were head banging as soon as we entered the area! After an hour of building up a good sweat, we went to cool off outside. Walking around, we saw a brightly lit carousel and instantly pounced, our inner-child on display as we spun around on our stallions. After we got off, we thought about riding the other big ride, a hand gliding one, but realized that might not be the best decision after grabbing some grub on the way to the T-Dome. Outside, the beats were loud and popping, as popular Seattle radio station Movin 92.5 had a DJ booth blasting some mainstream tunes.
After cooling down, back to the bass stage we went as Trollphace, Must Die!, Ghastly and Getter performed some of our favorite sets of the weekend. Another favorite moment of ours came when Getter dropped Backstreet Boys’ I Want It That Way, which had the crowd singing their hearts out, before switching to I Don’t Give A Fuck! Our minds: blown.
Photo Credit: Turk Photos. Bass Asylum Stage.
After dancing to some Getter for a few minutes, we made our way to the trance stage, called the Midway of Mayhem, to check out the legendary Paul Van Dyk. PvD was slated to headline USC’s first trance massive, Bliss: The Awakening, earlier this year but suffered some pretty scary injuries after falling off stage at Armin Van Buuren’s A State of Trance: Utrecht celebration. Paul Oakenfold, a legendary name in Trance, replaced PvD at Bliss, and delivered a memorable Full on Fluoro set. In the back of our minds though, we prayed that PvD would make his Seattle return once fully healthy. And return he did, playing some smooth instrumental trance before transiting to some of his vocal material toward the end of his set. Our hands were raised high to the ceiling when he played Lights and I Don’t Deserve You. We were definitely in our feels!
Looking around the Midway stage, the first thing we noticed was, well, the stage! Behind the DJ decks were shipping containers. Lots of them. Stacked high to the ceiling. Bleeding sound has been a point of discussion when it comes to USC’s massives at the T-Dome. Last Freaknight, Deadmau5, one of the headliners, called out the sound setup on Twitter, expressing disappointment and having some harsh words for the audio technicians. This year, it seemed USC took note and tried to remedy the situation using the containers. For the most part, the set up worked. We were enjoying PvD set until Galantis took over at the main stage, directly behind him. They were putting on quite a show as the bass and roaring of the crowd made it difficult to enjoy the trance. Alas, we gave in and decided to see what Galantis was cooking.
Photo Credit: Turk Photos. Midway of Mayhem Stage.
Following Galantis’ high-energy set was day 1 headliner, and the new DJ Mag #1, Martin Garrix. Garrix had the crowd in a frenzy when he came out on stage wearing a wizard costume, complete with the most glorious beard! Garrix would play all the tunes that helped made him so popular: Animals, Don’t Look Down, Name of Love, etc., in addition to some bass, which caught us off guard; a pleasant surprise to say the least!
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