I had been in the Netherlands for less than two hours before I started looking for shows to go to. It was the 22nd of April. There were 4 days until Koningsdag (Kings Day), a very popular National Holiday for the Dutch and one of the biggest, most notorious party nights of the year in the Amsterdam. It’s sort of like Canada Day in Canada, though it celebrates the birth of the Dutch nation’s King Willem-Alexander on the 27th of April every year. This year the 27th fell on a Monday, so the entire weekend prior was packed full of parties and events.
I cracked open my laptop and dove in, wading through an endless sea of Google-translated Dutch party listings. I knew I needed to absorb some heavy bass, but had little idea what my options were, apart from the vague ‘techno’ and ‘house’ labels that are popular here. I didn’t want to just go to any old party that would have me. I needed a home run for my first weekend in Amsterdam.
It didn’t take long to find 50 Hurtz, a promotions company that throws parties every few months at one of the bigger clubs in Amsterdam called Melkweg. My fond memories of the 40hz Soundsystem in Toronto drew me to the 50 hurtz moniker; and any promoter that chooses a name that signifies a very low, sub-bass frequency was very likely to give me the full-body bass experience that I was craving. The event listing was in Dutch, but I got the jist of it from Google Translate and the Soundcloud pages of the DJ’s that were booked to perform. Without hesitation, I purchased a ticket for Sunday night.
“…wasn’t looking for some cheesy dance bar to have the BEST.NIGHT.EVER. I wanted to go somewhere dark and dingy and have my chest rattled”
As a Hail Mary for something on Saturday, I put a post up on the ever-helpful Amstedam sub-Reddit stating that I was looking for some bass-infused music that the locals would attend. I made a point to separate myself from the average marijuana and Red Light District-seeking poster. I’ve MOVED here. I’m no tourist – and from the swarm of British-bachelorette parties I’d seen roaming around downtown my first few nights, wasn’t looking for some cheesy dance bar to have the BEST.NIGHT.EVER. I wanted to go somewhere dark and dingy and have my chest rattled.
As it does, Reddit delivered. I received a PM from another user the next day:
“This Saturday there is an illegal party under the Schellingwouderbrug (the Dutch love to smash words together to make one big word). It happens every year. The police know about it and let it go on. There will be two stages, Dubstep and Techno. Bring your own alcohol or whatever. They don’t sell anything there.”
I read the message over and over, unsure of what I was getting myself into. The link showed that the party was on the outskirts of town, literally under a bridge in the east end of the city. Either I’d hit the jackpot, or someone is trying to lure me to the middle of nowhere to steal my bike, I thought.
I invited Tim, a DJ and producer I’d met online while looking for apartments to come with me. We met for a drink beforehand and I explained the somewhat suspicious nature of this party – that it was so far out of the city either to stop it from being a tourist attraction, or so someone can rob or kidnap us. Tim agreed to check it out. I like Tim.
“I explained the somewhat suspicious nature of this party – that it was so far out of the city either to stop it from being a tourist attraction, or so someone can rob or kidnap us.”
We threw a bottle of wine and a few beers in a bag and headed out. As we biked out of the city centre, towards the open water and flatlands of rural Netherlands, our environment slowly traded light pollution for a fresh breeze. We passed over a few large bodies of water until we could hear bass pounding in the distance. There were young, hipster-looking people flocking excitedly towards the noise; A good sign.
Approaching the source of the commotion, we saw that there were two stages, indeed, set up below where the road began to lift up into a bridge to pass over the water. A thick concrete support served as a divider between the two stages. The angled concrete ceiling tapering into the ground amplified the bass and provided an ideal setting for the minimal, sub-heavy dubstep music playing on the appropriately-oversized PA system. I smiled; this was exactly what I hoped it would be.
There was no neon, sunglasses at night, gloves with light-up-fingers or tank tops with impressively offensive sayings on them. This word-of-mouth celebration was miles outside of the city, and people seemed truly appreciative and purposeful. Everyone I talked to was local, hailing mostly from Holland. They all told me how lucky I was to have found the party and how special of an event it has become over the last few years.
Tim was unfamiliar with dubstep and looked a bit unsure. This was not the Americanized, Skrillex circa-2012 music that has become synonymous with dubstep. This was the menacing, minimal and Dub-influenced Skream & Benga UK-style sound. The true namesake of dubstep, complete with dreadlocked MCs and proper sub-woofers. Tim acquiesced.
The techno side of the bridge provided a consistent and hypnotizing stream of percussion to keep people moving, while the dubstep side hit hard with its half time rhythms, inspiring people to dip low and high again in that traditional UK skanking style. Waves of bass dove up and down and wobbled slightly before slamming into my body. I could feel the air pressure shift from quick low-end pitch changes as I convulsed rhythmically. The bass was good, and my thirst for it was quenching.
The music was cut-off inexplicably around 3AM, although seeming premature was probably for the best. The crowd dispersed slowly while Tim and I took our time wandering out of the madness to eventually find our bikes to start the long ride home.
Biking along the Amstel river, a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction washed over me as the sun rose. My legs burned and I had a permanent grin plastered on my face as I soaked up the warmth in a brand new city.
I woke up around 3 pm on Sunday, and had just enough time to get it together before going out to do it all again. The 50 hurtz event ticket I had pre-purchased taunted me. I was tired, but I was in brand new city with nothing to do but take in as much as possible. I mapped my route to the club, thankfully within the city limits this time.
The 50 hurtz event had two separate areas (both 1920’s style theatre spaces with seats removed), one each for dubstep and drum and bass.
Like I mentioned before, dubstep here means something different than what I’m used to hearing in North America under the same label. The ‘UK’ sound is generally less shrill and high-end-y. Far less laser-robot sounds and more heavy percussion and sub-bass, which I also assume is why it seems to be so closely associated with the drum and bass scene here; (shows are often booked as ‘drum and bass’ but will feature both dubstep as well as its faster, 170-ish-bpm cousin). The main focus is, of course the bass, with all of the elements that surround it being kept to a minimum so as to create sonic space for it to swell and be heard as much as it is felt.
I spent most of my time in the main room, the larger of the two, that was pumping dubstep from a line of subwoofers that lined the front of the stage. In the second room, all of the swing and half-time thumping that was happening in the dubstep room was replaced with relentless, lightening fast kick and snare patterns that attacked like some sort of high-speed futuristic war.
The scale of the 50 Hurtz party was impressive. Everything from the soundsystems to the visuals, to the diversity of acts was on point. I have since attended more of their events and have yet to be disappointed.
The night flew by, as did the entire weekend. I biked home with the satisfaction of a baseball player rounding third base after knocking the ball out of the park on his first at-bat of the season.
These two experiences have reignited my love for dubstep, drum and bass, and bass music in general. Furthermore, they’ve reminded me of the exploratory nature of music and the importance of individual people being willing to push their boundaries and try something new.
I moved here thinking I had a good idea of the kind of music I’d hear and the scenes I was most interested in, and that vision has since been thrown out the window. I am in a place now where I am absorbing as much as possible of what this city and continent have to offer musically, and am still contemplating how my own music and influences can contribute.
I get the sense that when it comes to dance music in North America, we get only a small taste of what is going on in Europe. Mainstream North American music is making people forget about the diversity that exists in the tiny niches of music that are pushing boundaries and making different music for the sake of it being new and challenging, which is the only way to innovate in any artistic community. The Internet is of course the most useful tool in exposing new music to the masses, but people need to be willing to seek it out for it to make any sort of impact.
If you’ve ever been in a sea of people at the main stage of a giant North-American festival and felt a bit bored as everyone sings along or dances wildly to a song that you have all heard a million times, you have experienced the flip side of the innovation that I am describing. Familiarity and nostalgia are great, but for the sake of balance, the opposite side of the spectrum needs to exist, and requires an investment on the part of the listener.
For any DJ or act to rise up to the point where they are headlining fests like Osheaga or Shambala, people need to be willing to take a chance on something new and different. It may not always be to your liking, but the fact that it is new and different is an important contribution in itself.
Skrillex has tapped into this need in a way that is both selfless and uncharacteristic of the mainstream music industry with his popular ‘Skrillex Selects’ Soundcloud page. By simply using his name to vouch for others, he vaults countless bedroom producers and previously unknown names into the spotlight. He’s not doing anything more than saying, “Hey, I’ve listened to this and I think it’s cool,” but is doing it with an awareness of the weight his name carries. In vouching for relatively unknown artists, he benefits not only his label and projects that he has a personal investment in, but also contributes to the broadening of musical tastes in general. By exposing more people to different music and paving the way for inspiration he is helping to create further innovation.
Without large groups of people willing to try out a new style or take a chance on an unproven promoter or act, experimental and innovative music would have no place to grow. Keep this in mind the next time you buy tickets to see Diplo AGAIN, or are paying Ticketmaser’s offensive surcharges to buy tickets to the many well-known festivals operating in North America.
There’s nothing wrong with attending events like these; I will probably see you there, but as a fan you have a choice of whether you want to follow or lead. The great part is, you don’t have to choose just one. You can follow the crowd to see this years Full Flex Express tour, but also take some time to go and see some unknown DJs at an unknown venue as well. Your presence carries a lot of power at both events, and you may be surprised by which one you enjoy more.
My intention in saying this isn’t to hold one genre, scene or continent over another. At the end of the day I am a huge fan and I just want to dance and connect and have fun. I want to go to Full Flex and Osheaga and see the big budget shows, but I also want a Tunnel Rave. I want to be able to go to shows in unexpected places and hear music that I’ve never heard before being enjoyed by a large group of people. And this is less likely to happen if we continually choose what we know and are familiar with over what is new and outside of our current taste profile.
Trying something new is always a risk. The benefits however, outweigh the drawbacks, and you can take satisfaction in knowing that your willingness to experiment in your choices is motivation to keep going for the countless yet-to-be-discovered acts out there. And as a bonus, one day you might get to say, “I saw them before they got big,” and know that you helped ‘them’ get there.
Your attendance at any event is a vote for what you want in the future, so use it with a sense of purpose and be aware that your interest is contributing to the direction of the music overall. From what I’ve seen in Amsterdam so far, people are willing to take a chance on something new, and the scene and sound at thriving because of it.
– Written by Nick Thomas. Edited by Kevin Gallant.
