This past Saturday night the much anticipated Project Z returned to the NOS Center for its second annual show. The Joint Basscon and Bassrush show gave bassheads and hardstyle fans an exciting lineup including headliners like Eptic, Borgore, Darren Styles, and a Dj Isaac classic set.
I started my Project Z expedition early to avoid the ridiculous traffic on the way to San Bernardino. I got to the venue with about 30 minutes till showtime. Perfect because I wanted to see the Los Angeles based hardstyle artists, NonToxic. They did not disappoint the couple hundred of people that decided to come in early. They even surprised the crowd with a couple of unreleased singles. Next up was another American Hardstyle act Mekanikal, who played some awesome hard trap. Followed by the always entertaining Crisis Era, who decided to jump into the crowd and start a mosh pit.
Following Crisis Era, I needed to get out of the sauna that was the Basscon stage, so I wandered around the rest of the grounds and tried to find my friends. I was really curious about the Area Z stage, I did not recognize anyone on that lineup so I want to see the up and coming talent. I was kind of disappointed though, not in the music it was actually pretty good, but disappointed in the sound system. The sound was awful, my crappy Suburu factory radio had better bass than the Area Z stage, which is sad because when Ganja White Night went on later that night I could tell the set would have been 100 times better on a main stage sound system, but thats just my opinion.
After about an hour of meeting up with people and checking out some new music, I found myself at the Bassrush tent for Midnight Tyrannosaurus b2b Oolacile. The man famous for his Rick and Morty dubstep remixes was one of the highlights of the night for me, not only for the fantastic set, but because the Bassrush was just all around better than the Basscon stage. For one it was outside, so it was exponentially cooler, and the stage production on the Bassrush stage was way better. Normally I would have made my way back to the Basscon stage because of that incredible lineup, but I decided to stay at the Bassrush stage because the Basscon stage was just way to hot. The Bassrush stage and Area Z had people I have yet to see so it worked out in my favor. I was able to see Gentleman’s Club, the UK Dub Trio whom my basshead friends have been telling me I have to see. They played Woo Boost as a tribute to Rusko, who is currently battling cancer, and hearing the whole crowd sing a long gave me chills.
The rest of my night was spent exploring around the rest of the festival. Bouncing around stage to stage, meeting new people, trying some of the food truck food, and trading Kandi. Besides the sound at Area Z and the Basscon stage being worse then the steam room at la fitness, I would definitely say this years Project Z was one for the books (hopefully next year both stages will be outside). I’m excited excited for the future of Hardstyle in America, with Basscon’s following picking up some speed who knows what going to happen! Next up for me though is Frontliner, Lady Faith and NonToxic in Fresno followed by the Basscon takeover at Escape!!😈👊🏽
