As one of the industry-wide favorites in the EDM scene, Illenium is bringing his own two-day long festival to the Gorge Amphitheatre. Find tickets to the Memorial Day weekend show on Illenium’s website. To get ready for the show, read our full artist guide below.
Illenium
Capitalizing on the success of his fourth studio album, Fallen Embers, Illenium is taking to several tour stops at sold-out stadiums across the country. Many of these stops are also two days with Illenium headlining both, although it’s not clear yet how he differentiates the two sets. He’s certainly got a large enough catalog to pull from though. It’s likely safe to expect some throwbacks and newer tracks over both days, and plenty of remixes.
Over the span of his career, Illenium has done a lot to push forward the melodic bass genre. While his early albums solely stuck to dubstep and melodic bass, he’s delved into a hybrid pop rock-EDM sound with Fallen Embers. Although his sound has changed a lot over the years, you can always count on him to throw a wildly fun live set.
San Holo
Sander van Djick, better known by his stage name San Holo, is a DJ and producer whose mission is to brighten the world with his music. In his earlier days, he released singles on Vancouver B.C.-based label Monstercat and quickly gained the support of Porter Robinson who featured San Holo’s remix of Natural Light on the official Worlds remixed album.
Following his early career start, San Holo soon after pitched his own label, bitbird. On his label, he’s released two albums, the most recent of which came out early this year.
Dabin
No PNW show would be complete with at least one bass artist, and Dabin is here to deliver. Even fans who aren’t crazy for headbanging will enjoy the melodic bass tracks that he’s built a dedicated fan base around. Fresh off of his fourth full-length album release in October, Dabin stopped in Seattle for the first rescheduled leg of his highly anticipated Into the Wild tour.
In addition to producing and mixing, Dabin can also kill a guitar live. Since he brings it out to his tour stops, we can’t be sure if we’ll get to hear it on the Gorge stage, but we hope so. All of his albums are worth checking out, but Wild Youth is a DMNW favorite.
SoDown
Another bass music phenom from Colorado, SoDown brings funky, instrumental-driven beats to the big stage. He culminates his inspiration from Pretty Lights and his talent on the saxophone to create grooving, feel-good tracks. Within his signature sound, SoDown additionally categorizes his discography into three distinct buckets: SoHeavy, SoGroovy, and SoChill.
Most recently his 3-track EP, Get Up, does exactly as promised: gets us up and moving. If you want a good sample of his sound live, check out his Dancefestopia mix from 2020.
Grabbitz
Nicholas Chiari, known as Grabbitz, is a jack of all trades in the music world. As a musician, producer, DJ, vocalist, and composer, he’s touched most corners of the EDM scene. Along with his originally-produced tracks, Grabbitz also hops on several remixes. Among those include deadmau5, OneRepublic, Jauz, Pendulum, and more.
Although we’re obsessed with his collabs with Rezz and Subtronics, his solo projects are notable. Most recently, his 2022 album Time Isn’t Real showcases his creativity and indie-centric sound.
BRONDO
Colorado native Thomas O’Connell, aka Brondo, is a heavy-hitting dubstep force to be reckoned with. His music is filled with recklessly aggressive bass lines and packs a punch in every track.
Although he’s been on the come up for a couple years, his take on SLANDER and Said the Sky’s Potions is where he became more widely known. His marketing strategy is also unique: he once played a show where the only ticketing requirement was to bring in a ripe banana.
PawS
It feels fitting that the official DJ of the Denver Nuggets is a rising artist in the dance music scene. Austin Pawelka, also known as PawS, has come up on the scene quick. With a SoundCloud that only stretches back to about a year ago, it’s relatively unknown what he’ll throw in a live set.
What we do know is that he’s bounced from trap to house, and as a professional basketball DJ, he knows how to get a crowd going. It’s a big year for him to continue growing: he’ll perform at Global Dance Festival in Denver, and at another stop with Illenium at the Coliseum in Virginia.
Sunday, May 29th
Alan Walker
Reaching heights that many artists only dream about before he’d hit the age of 20, Alan Walker continues to be one of the bright young stars leading the way for the future of dance music. At 23, he has headlined several tours, released an album, and has one of the most impressive runs of releases in the industry. Plus, he’s homies with Hans Zimmer.
Flux Pavilion
Another DMNW favorite and a pioneer in the dubstep scene since the early days, Flux Pavilion is also performing. Since 2008, the English producer, label founder, and DJ has been performing globally following the meteoric success of his track, I Can’t Stop.
More recently, he’s broken the mold of the heavy-hitting dubstep box he was placed in for a number of years. His .wav album came out in 2020 and smashed all expectations. Experimental and melodic in nature, Flux Pavilion delivers a new sound that we are consistently impressed with.
Mersiv
Weird and wobbly, Mersiv comes out of the WAKAAN stable run by Liquid Stranger. After releasing his full-length debut album in 2021, Mersiv is continuing to release collaborations with fellow bass artists.
He first discovered his passion for DJ’ing in his hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana. Although it’s not considered a destination for experimental bass music, he found a group of friends who also enjoyed it and regularly hosted barn parties. He now resides in Colorado, considered the bass music capital of the US.
Blanke
Australian-born producer Blanke has been rising in fame over the last few years, and for good reason. His live sets are always a blast with everything from drum and bass, to melodic bass, with a mix of house and fun remixes.
This isn’t his first time performing in support of Illenium, either. In 2019, Illenium and Blanke released Gorgeous as part of Illenium’s third studio album. Although it was already gaining massive support on the album, it didn’t stop there: Blanke released an edit of the track that became a regular part of Illenium’s live sets.
Decadon
Decadon is another bass music artist hailing from Denver. His style is rooted in a combination of heavy bass and rock music which is complemented by his instrumental talent with the piano, drums, and guitar. The hybrid rock-EDM style is evident in his music, and even more so in his rock remix playlist which features Fall Out Boy, the Rolling Stones, and more.
This isn’t his first time supporting Illenium, either. He released a remix from Illenium’s early days for Sound of Walking Away, which caught his attention.
Fury + MC Dino
Drum and bass duo Fury and MC Dino are also taking the stage this Memorial Day weekend with Illenium. Longtime friends, the duo first teamed up over two decades to perform together. During the early days of the pandemic, they also launched a satirical docuseries on drum and bass.
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