THIRD EYE COLLECTIVE hosts DEJA VU 2021 ; A Recap of an Experience from out of this World
A Recap of an Experience from out of this World
Written by MF Oblivion on 7/7/2021 :
From an outside point of view, the DEJA VU event hosted by the Third Eye Collective in Brattleboro, VT seems to be another heavy bass show with the legendary Hennessey Sound Design providing that experience that people travel miles from around the northeast just to feel and hear. But at a closer glance, the event is littered with extraordinary talent and all sorts of fun, with help from the Couch Gang Production crew, Hennessey Sound Design, the Goop Troop, Sound Landings, 767 Audio, and most importantly Shastin and Justin with their team at Third Eye Collective.
With this being my first encounter with the collective and their capabilities as a venue and a creative space, I was shocked by how chaotically peaceful this environment was to be able to house such an out of this world experience. Felt almost like a carnival from space!
From the start, you walk in and catch this art gallery atmosphere, paintings all over the walls from local artists, people pushing their own brands along the side wall, a rail in the back for skateboarding and a stage at the front with a custom stage hand crafted by the Cough Gang for projector mapping to help with the visual experience! Jacek of Couch Gang provided an out of this world visual show for all the artists performing, enhancing the overall experience for those who attended the show.
The first night kicked off with a wicked back-to-back DJ performance from Warco and Oddpaco, both giving totally different yet interesting collaborative energies on the boards that was enough for the whole crowd to feel. Combining vibes from heavy dub and UK drill, a powerful force was emitted that was enough to get the crowd into the right mindset for dancing and head bobbing the whole night away.
After their back-to-back, Jacek came from behind the VJ desk to house the crowd with some more heavy dubstep vibes that rattled the whole venue. You could feel his unique mixes and exuberant energy radiating from the stage.
Once Jacek set a much more intense vibe for the evening, Head Space came with a handful of original productions crafted just for the event, rinsing some fresh tunes from the crowd. Head Space brought a newer wave dub spin to the atmosphere while maintaining many of the classical elements of EDM, colliding wubs with heavy chops, rhythmic basslines, and trap-like drum patches, providing a wildly satisfying vibe to the evening with his original spin to the dubstep flavor.
Following Head Space’s set was Versible’s set. Versible is a part of the Dipitus Collective that was created out of Western Massachusetts several years ago, and is continuously growing in leverage with time. Versible’s set went a lot more into the original deep dub productions and heavy bass end of the spectrum. The Dipitus crew is well known for hitting the crowd with grimey wubs and electrifying wobbles that sounded impeccable through the Hennessey speakers, moving the crowd to intense limits and emitting an undeniably heavy vibe.
After Versible’s set was the Apothecary from the Goop Troop, who was also the headliner for the first night. Out of all of the sets of the night, the Apothecary brought a new level of hype and energy to the stage, rinsing endless unreleased and never before heard productions that he was sitting on for a while prior to the event. From the deep bass and the dynamic drum patterns, to the interesting sample usage, this whole set was beyond attention grabbing, closing the first night out with a solid yet raging finish!
The second day of the event kicked off with a 5 hour renegade show outside of the venue, with trapeze artists and music provided by Lil Hurtz and Shacksies on the DJ decks. Lil Hurtz ended up debuting some unreleased dub tracks for the crowd who were steadily piling in, creatively influencing the trapeze performance through the music. Julia Baccellieri brought some friends out with her for the Trapeze art and they went absolutely wild on the ropes, absolutely astonishing the crowd and the bystanders who caught their performance. What a perfect way to begin pulling in the audience to come check out what was in store for the second night at DEJA VU! Bystanders were able to enjoy the music and performance with amazing BBQ provided by the Pit Mistress BBQ food truck, who ended up vending for the whole event, making sure hungry partygoers were fed when they needed it throughout the night.
Props to the Pit Mistress BBQ Food Truck!
After the trapeze acts, the Third Eye Collective crew started rounding up everyone for the event and started pulling in the crowd for the second night of Deja Vu! The second night started with the playful energy of Silly Sounds on the decks, setting the vibes just right for the evening with original electronic productions and remixes on new wave favorites, like songs from Ashnikko and Oliver Tree. She even had her friend MF Oblivion come on stage to do some freestyle raps over a couple of her beats to get the crowd hyped up for the rest of the night, combining forces to exuberate a new intensity of musical energy. Silly Sounds brought a unique vibe to the start of the evening with her outrageously comforting style on the boards, setting the energy at a unique pace for night 2 of DEJA VU!
After Silly Sounds’ set, Mort came to the stage wielding bass and heavy wubs to keep the crowd controlled, bringing an overflow of pumping energy on the decks, throwing in more modern dubstep mixes with a psychedelic edge that couldn’t help but get the crowd grooving at an overwhelming extreme.Once Mort was done raging on the decks, Sinföne came on to throw that original heavy deeb dub and rinse a list of original bangers for the crowd, including original tracks from many of his producer friends in the Goop Troop. Sinföne made sure the crowd could feel his sincere and genuine frequencies through the speakers! The set was filled with all sorts of lively and vibrant energy as the Couch Gang visuals went more in depth and the music got more intense. By this time, the crowd was beyond the point of just moving and cheering. They were expressing beautiful insanity. The vibrant mixing of energies at the hands of Sinföne was something truly amazing, watching the crowd finally get comfortable with each other and sharing smiles over the mutual love of bass was something quite empowering and uplifting.
Following Sinföne was Ekomsdub of 767Audio, who was also operating the Hennessey sound system a good majority of the time with Sinföne and Subsequence, to make sure the sounds were clear and the vibes were pure. Ekomsdub brought a unique old school energy to the stage that was hard to avoid, throwing the audience back to the dubstep and deep EDM that many of us have come to love and enjoy. For many, it is what got them into the culture. The experience of the bass culture was displayed clearly throughout the set, and his effective control over the decks and crowd demonstrated how long he’s really been around in the game. All in all he left the audience near-speechless, as the hard bass went electrifying through the crowd.
After the ultra rare Ekomsdub set, came the mighty Symbiosa from the Goop Troop, flexing the speakers to new extremes and handling the decks like they were nobody’s business. Symbiosa’s set was filled with intense body-moving bass, mind boggling sound patterns, witty electronic noises, and complex drum dynamics, coming together to give this wild yet psychedelic soundscape that is hard to replicate. Symbiosa controlled the atmosphere through the frequencies and made the soundwaves do things I never thought were possible. Truly impressive and an intense set thrown by the one and only Symbiosa.
As the night continued to rage on, Subsequence of 767Audio and Hennessey Sound Design came to take the stage to finish the night. Demonstrating deep emotional transitions from old school lyrical rap tracks like Brother Ali’s “Uncle Sam Goddamn”, to his deep expressive electronic productions, in addition to tracks from his fellow collaborators in Goop Troop and 767. Subsequence openly expressed himself on the decks and relayed his energy to the crowd through his unorthodox and abstract mixing style.
A wild way to close out the night overall, leaving the remainder of the audience in awe as things began to shift more outside toward the fire performers so the inside could get a quick cleanup and setup for the late movie night/sleepover that was being held after the fire performance.
WHAT NEEDS TO BE SAID ABOUT THE FIRE PERFORMERS OTHER THAN, WOW!
Did you know Sinföne could do crazy fire stunts? I certainly didn’t… All three performers put on a wild performance and closed the lively vibes of the weekend out peacefully, preparing everyone for the week ahead.
The whole event was a perfect way to release all of the built up energy from quarantine and immerse ourselves back into the social element we have all been missing out on for so much time since the covid chaos struck worldwide. Between the electrifying EDM music, the Hennessey Sound Systems, the crowd controlling DJs, the intense visuals provided by Couch Gang Productions, the creative vendors, the intriguing gallery-like venue, the amazing down-to-earth people who attended and made the event possible, as well as the handfuls of expressive performers beyond ordinary forms, all helped to make DEJA VU nothing short of a carnival-like experience from outer space that is sure to keep you coming back!
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