Brit’s floor killers, Vex’d, stopped in SF and rocked a ridiculously packed house at Underground SF on Haight Street. It was bliss to hear Vex’d remixing their own music on the fly! This is just a lite review of their appearance in a room filled with old-school music heads from both sides of the Bay. It was a superb warm-up for the weekend of Halloween festivities still to come.

Cheeky Humanoid Underground Dubsteppers

UndergroundSF is one of my favourite venues in the Bay Area because the people who work there are super nice and it has a proper boomin soundsystem. Earlier this year, the sound was reinforced with extra bass for the electronic-dominant entertainment that rumbles the Lower Haight bar. But it was hard to tell on the night Vex’d played, due to the impenetrable mass of humanoid bodies filtering every sound wave that emanated from the speaker boxes. Wobbling bass melodies and snappy snare drums bounced through one pillar of stretched skin and mushy organs after another. Oh it was packed all right. There was no way of escaping either the people or the music; the two were entwined into one creature. Either the promoters did an exceptional job or Vex’d has had a surge in popularity since the release of Degenerate. Even in grand ole SF we rarely get to hear dubstep live, especially by one of its masters. Vex’d played a mashup of their own hits, combinations I had never heard before. It was beautiful! Slow and slippery synths with snappy beats that rebounded off the walls like a giant ball of rubber bands.

Vex’d Packed The Dance Floor At UndergroundSF

UndergroundSF isn’t a huge bar. They have a great smoking area out back and the city’s best sketchy corner up front. I’ve always thought the dancefloor was a perfect size: spacious enough for dancing and getting a full-range of sound, but not so big that it needs a lot of people in order to feel cozy. When Vex’d played, there was no room on the dancefloor for dancing. There wasn’t room anywhere for more than just wiggling in place. (This is why american kids don’t dance at dance parties - dancefloor real estate…) It was exciting to be in the midst of so many dubstep fans though! It wasn’t long ago that dubstep was a completely underground phenomena - even in San Francisco. It’s only recently found its following here, thanks to nights like Dub Mission, Surya Dub and Grime City (with SoFat and 5lowershop djs droppin it at parties for years as well). And of course, Grime City introduced San Francisco to emcee Child. Can you take him back now? It seems every dubstep event these days - even one with the legendary Vex’d - is doomed to be chatted over by emcee Child. I went to hear Vex’d play; anything they wanted to play, no matter how weird. What we got was an AmAzing dubstep set by Vex’d with a drum-n-bass emcee that wouldn’t shut up… No, he didn’t make it sound grimey. He’s not that kind of MC. He sounds just like the MCs in old Mickey Finn and Darren Jay sets from the late-90’s. (Yo, I a’int dissin the style!) No matter, even a Child can’t ruin Vex’d any more than an impenetrable mass of humanoids blocking the speakers can. It did make me want to take Vex’d home to play in our living room so we could party proper - like liquid ketamine coming out of a Wall Of Sound! But it will have to wait, because Vex’d had other places to be.

BIG UPS to JuJu and NarcoHz for making this happen! Despite my distaste for the MC, I had a fantastic time!! I missed the other bands, including JuJu, so there isn’t much else I can say here. If you caught any of it, please tell us about it in the comments. Big Up the SF Dubstep MASSIV!!

Vex’d Links

Vex’d music

Click on the album cover to read more about Degenerate on Amazon. They also have “Killing Floors” as a digital download for a dollar…

Pages about dubstep ~ Lion ~ UndergroundSF ~ Vexd