Over the past few years, Wobbleland has become a staple event within the west coast bass music community. What started out as small show in a small nightclub has blossomed into a massive two day event at the San Jose Civic Center in California. This year, Vital Events really outdid themselves with a massive array of some of the biggest artists in the bass music scene including Hucci, NGHTMRE, GTA and TroyBoi.
Don’t get it twisted though, this was and always will be a dubstep inspired event at its heart, and BadKlaat, Liquid Stranger, Jakes, Getter, Doctor P and Cookie Monsta b2b Funtcase made sure to reassert that fact in a wonderfully resounding manner throughout the weekend. Most likely due to the incredible savagery that was Jauz last year, Vital also made sure to bring out some of the best west coast Bass House artists on the scene including Ghastly, Dr. Fresch, and Wuki. We were thoroughly impressed that all this was on just two stages under one roof, I mean a lineup like this is festival worthy, and so was the experience. Below you’ll find our top 5 artists of the weekend that really blew us away with they sound and energy behind the decks. If you haven’t been yet, this article is going to make you put this on your bucket list.
First up, NGHTMRE was the opposite of his name. He was beyond beautiful in the filthiest way possible with a great selection of his own tracks, bangers and an even better selection of vocals. Bringing his own unique taste of trap and bass heavy music, he had the crowd electrified. Not a single person stopped dancing during the entirety of NGHTMRE’s set. He was the highlight of the first day and a person to keep on you radar for many years to come.
Next up, amidst the slew of back to backs this year, all of which were glorious and featured the likes of Grimblee B2B Hecka, Sub Artillery B2B D Menis, Algo B2B Twine, Cookie Monsta B2B Funtcase, Alphabit B2B Seriph, and Blankface B2B Mace our absolute favorite was the G Jones x Buku set. G Jones has been killing it in the underground scene for a while but has daylighted recently and could be named the current king of the iconic west coast bass music. While you can commonly find him doing B2B’s with Minnesota, like they did at the last Wobbleland, Buku joined him on the CDJ’s of the main stage this year. Buku is based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and brought his own twist on traditional trap and bass music. This was very much a West Coast vs East Coast back to back but was the perfect blend of each of their sounds.
Right before G Jones and Buku took the stage, Dr. Fresch made sure everyone got medicated on heavy bass and some much needed house music. The good doctor provided a genre bending set, including a little bit of pretty much any genre you can think of. There is no hiding his amazing talent of controlling a crowd when he steps up on the decks. He even played an unreleased Swage remix if you were lucky enough to witness it.
The courtyard stage was new this year, but so very lit. Its sound was provided by Void Acoustics; and every veteran bashed knows how are insanely powerful they are. Luckily of all of us, one of dubstep’s true OGs was able to rinse out on them, and it made our f*cking night. BadKlaat brought that raw energy with the quickness, which is often hard to come by at smaller stages. He had a huge turn out and over filled the tent with people spilling out on every side. BadKlaat is another artist that just oozes talent when he hits the CDJs. He displayed his outsanding abilities brilliantly with nothing but double drops, rewinds, juggling, and all out madness. The doubledrop he did of “Head Crush” was, if we may, absolutely mental, and so was his freshly released tune “The Leviathans.”
Finally, TroyBoi was rather surprisingly awesome. He played an eclectic collection of his own wonky trap music bringing nothing but heat to the decks. Usually when an artist plays WAKA FLOCKA FLAME’s “Grove Street Party” it creates an “oh, of course they would play this” moment. When TroyBoi added it to his set, it was like adding a plump and juicy cherry on top of your ice cream. Nothing but a delightful addition to something that is already amazingly sweet.
This year’s Wobbleland was good times and great music. Vital Events sure knows how to throw a party. This was the sixth edition of Wobbleland and we are very excited to see where they take it next. Be sure to check out Toxic Summer, July 30-31, which is their next event and a spin off of Wobbleland. Major thanks to the entire Vital team for putting this on and spending your energy to create something so amazing.
Written by: Bret Jacobson
Images used with permission by Wobbleland
