Word of Hardstyle’s imminent demise was brutally thumped to the ground and drowned in the Pacific last night as 4000+ squeezed into Los Angeles’ Hollywood Palladium for day 1 of Basscon’s Wasteland. A battery of lasers that would make Luke Skywalker and the Rebel Forces proud, combined with a sound system louder than Thor’s hammer lit up Sunset Boulevard and screamed the news.

The night started with Max Enforcer. As some of you may know, Max Enforcer is Evil Activities’ Hardstyle alias, so it’s no wonder that his set in particular was heavy hitting right off the bat, even if he played, and we guiltily sung along to, “Lost in Paradise.”

Audiotricz followed this up by maintaining the euphoria with all of their biggest tracks that are known to tug at the heartstrings, including the implementation of the very popular “Release” by Atmozfears, a track that even the raw kids can’t ignore.

D-Block & S-Te-Fan was a particular highlight of the night because they were playing a lot of their older tracks which might feature their best sound design (Sound of the Thunder, Music Made Addict etc.). Opening with their track “Higher” set the mood for one the most emotional sets that could be remembered in recent memory.

Isaac got the crowd in a frenzy, veering from euphoric to raw in a perfect balance. He started out his set with some crazy Zelda samples that sounded absolutely insane on the massive Basscon sound system. Every track that followed seemed to be instilled in the minds of the crowd. Then, he even brought out every promoter’s best friend, Leo Corson, to grab the mic and remind the Southern California faithful why we love all bitches!

We took a little break and sauntered out to the smoking area where we even spotted controversial man-of-the-hour Kari Lambou holding court on the smoking patio! And not far away, Fresh Entertainment’s Sherief Zakher was showing off his new tattoos to DJ Mindcontroller and his posse.

We also spotted Kriss Erickson of Lucky Rabbit Photography who came down from NorCal to witness the spectacle. West coast party regular Giovanny Garcia made his requisite appearance (even though he was spotted at the last minute). He literally has been spotted at every Hard Dance show on the west coast! And of course Las Vegas true-believer Matthew Levin deserves a mention because no one has the amount of dedication to this scene that this man does and he is THE man that everyone looks forward to seeing when they attend harder events. Our photographer Marvelous Mike Ortiz was making the rounds snapping most of the flix you see on this page. Watch out for some of his upcoming video productions by-the-way!

Finally rested, we witnessed possibly the best set of the night: Audiofreq and Code Black’s reunion of Bioweapon. They played a lot of tracks from what is considered by many to be the golden era of hardstyle (2008-2010). They had a perfect blend of old and new, and they also incorporated some raw tracks. Finally getting to hear E-Force’s “Seven” in a live setting was a defining moment for our man DJ Daybreaker who could be seen bopping in the crowd. Even more evidence of this, there was a moment were these two really got the crowd bouncing off the walls when they dropped a slowed-down Hardcore track, DJ Mad Dog & Tommyknocker’s DJ Tool 1.

The night culminated with the reveal of who exactly were the “Notorious Two.” It is Lady Faith and the Pitcher’s new raw-oriented project. The response from the crowd at their tougher sounding tracks was strong and evidence that the SoCal hardstyle junkies are currently looking for more aggressive tracks, and that seemed pretty evident the entire night.

Night two is on the horizon and if the crowd wanted it hard, they are gonna get it. After witnessing Digital Punk in his USA debut on the Trauma Tour, the thought of him crushing on the Basscon system has us giddy like school girls riding unicorns. So get yourself sorted tonight and get ready!

While you’re out tonight, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of The HARD DATA as you exit the Palladium! We, along with faithful Utah hardstyle trooper Jesse Murdock will be at the ready to pass them to you!  To those that don’t know, The HARD DATA is the only physical magazine in America dedicated to the harder styles of EDM. Not only is it great to read on the ride home, but when you want to remember this time, do you really think you’re going to peruse your saved web browser bookmarks from like 10 phones forward in time… or break out a shoe box hidden in your closet full of kandi, flyers, accessories, and The Hard Data? ‘Nuff said! Until next time, this is Deadly Buda and Daybreaker reminding you: The rhythm is life and death!