BASS COLLECTIVE X KRUDD
Now that we had ventured outside of Leicester multiple times, it made sense to hit up one of the biggest cities near us – Birmingham. A mash up of DnB and bassline presented us with the opportunity to make a night out of Birmingham, courtesy of BASS Collective and Krudd. With BASS Collective native to Birmingham and Krudd from Nottingham, the event pulled together an insane line up in Amusement 13; from Canista and Traumatik, Burgaboy, DJ Looney, and not to mention endless B2Bs with some huge bassline legends, so it would’ve been rude not to go along.
After casually missing our first train to Birmingham, we made it there at a reasonable time but encountered a lengthy queue, as to be expected. As we approached the front of the queue we could see into Looney’s set, and the last thing we wanted was to hear his set through a wall whilst shivering outside. With time to spare we got inside and went to drop off our things in the cloakroom (naturally, as we came from Leicester). Unfortunately it wasn’t going to be as easy as that – the woman told us that there was no room left in the cloakroom. After a hasty conversation, we were sent away with my bag and our coats. I was in no way prepared to trudge and skank around this huge venue with all my belongings, but luckily we managed to blag someone to look after our stuff behind another counter. A bonus really – because we didn’t have to pay for that.
With only about 15 minutes left of Looney’s set, we made the most of it, skanking it out at the front until it ended. For us, this came too soon, and he played some absolute tunes. But to our amazement, he sandwiched himself between us at the bar and had a short and shouty conversation. We even managed to get multiple fist bumps. Only being in the venue for 30 minutes it had already seemed so eventful.
We left the DnB room to enter the main room – at probably the most busy time of the evening. TS7 B2B Shaun Dean with Bru-C was in full swing and it was even a struggle to move into the crowd. After having a short and squished skank, it is definitely fair to say that people go absolutely bonkers for Krudd. It was pure hype as people mounted behind the decks, Bru-C flying champagne over the crowd, and people feeding off the energy. I think it is also fair to say that Krudd have created such a brand around this kind of bassline; the amount of merch that I saw people wearing, it was impossible not to know that you were at a Krudd event.
As we switched it up to the third room, we encountered yet another wobbly B2B: Deadbeat UK, Dr Cryptic and Thorpey. For me, this was a highlight because these are the kinds of DJs that would bring different kinds of wobbles in comparison to the main room. It also had a different energy to the main room, it was still sweaty and busy but there was no struggle to go skank at the front if you wanted to.
The night zoomed by very quickly, Burgaboy followed, then it was just a mash up of all three rooms as we followed were the good sounds were. We ended our night on Pantha B2B DJ EJ; at this point we noticed that the speakers started to go a bit strange. One minute we could speak on a conversational level and be heard, and the next I could barely be heard when I was shouting. Some of the wobbliest tunes were being overshadowed by the crowds’ noise, but was still a good time.
It reached 5am and we’d reached the point of brokenness; an after party was happening at another venue, but our wallets and legs could only take us back to the train station. The likes of Nastee Boi, Canista and Subzero were playing afterwards; and we feared that we might be missing a bassline Subzero set, but it was getting difficult to stand up let alone skank. After leaving, it was impossible to not talk about the events of the night, which is definitely the sign of a smashing night.
Even though a bouncer let go of a door and it whacked me head, it was still a top notch night. Big up to Amusement 13, BASS Collective and Krudd for an exhausting but exhilarating one!
Chloe Baxter
February 4th 2018