Seeing local favorite Sureshot open for world-class artist Skrillex at a small club like Beta is the sort of chance I try not to miss.

Before going to the show, I already knew I disliked every recording I’ve heard from Skrillex, except possibly “Reptile’s Theme.” Maybe it’s the jury-rigged Goodwill-sourced speaker setup in my bedroom, but when I listen to dubstep alone I don’t like it much. Tuesday night, however, was different. 

Sureshot spun light, bouncy house music as people started to file into the main area of the club. Beta is in a remodeled brick warehouse on Blake Street in Denver. It’s like a fancier version of the ATLAS Black Box with better bottle service on the upstairs balcony and fewer student films.

 [See a photo gallery from the event here.]

Skrillex blasted Beta nightclub in Denver with filthy dubstep drops on Tuesday. (CU Independent/Jake Fojtik)

Around 10:30 p.m., bodies finally started to pack in. The crowd was an odd combination of college kids, a sprinkling of raver girls in as little clothing as possible, and several gentlemen in business attire.

Despite the show’s Tuesday date, people were determined to see Skrillex. Everyone I spoke to, from the ladies’ room to the Beatport lounge upstairs, wanted to talk about Skrillex. Skrillex this, Skrillex that, my sister’s best friend dated Sonny Moore (Skrillex’s real name), I want to get piercings just like his, I heard he’s gay, I heard he used to sing opera, etc. One would think it was the man’s funeral and not a gig due to the amount of people spreading hearsay.

Around 12:15 a.m., the crowd began to chant over the DJ.

“SKRILLEX! SKRILLEX! SKRILLEX!”

Two go-go dancers dressed like Minnie Mouse with extra cheek cleavage climbed up on boxes, one on either side of the DJ booth, swaying to Sureshot’s final song. During the approximate 30 seconds I stood still at the end of Sureshot’s set, at least three people within inches of me told me to dance. So I did. Due to technical difficulties during his first song, Skrillex had to rewind about a minute and start his set over, but he carried it off strong. 

Skrillex turned the night into a cross between my high school senior prom with a slightly better soundtrack and the inside of a fire extinguisher. I looked around in between bursts of smoke, strobe lights and mighty bass to discover that the club more full than I’d ever witnessed and absolutely everyone was grinding up on each other. Men and women had their shirts off. The air was hot and humid. 

The crowd yelled along to any understandable lyrics—a rare experience for a show at Beta. I saw flailing arms, swaying hips and bobbing heads through the fog machine’s blasts. Everyone appeared to have turned into one giant twisting mass of humanity dancing in the darkness. The go-go dancers twirled synchronously but stayed stable atop their platforms.

By the time Skrillex started mixing in bits of his song “Weekends,” I was honestly enjoying dubstep for the first time ever, while dancing like I was a senior in high school. 

Though his audience may be mainly people who didn’t like anything electronic B.S.E. (Before the Skrillex Era), I have come to an appreciation of his music when it’s fueled by Beta’s gigantic speaker setup. If anyone can make the masses appreciate music full of Transformers sounds and space-age wobbles, it is Sonny Moore.

Sureshot was a noteworthy opener, with beats that alternated between a standard drum ‘n bass/house 4/4 time signature and more creative things like reggaeton, salsa and a couple of hip-hop patterns. He strayed away from anything remotely resembling the prefabricated dubstep sound until at least 11:30 p.m., when things quickly got dirtier.

Many college kids enjoy American-style dubstep. A standard “dubby” bassline, the kind available on the Internet for free that even your 12-year-old brother has downloaded, sounds to me like giant frogs belching repetitively. Typical U.S. dubstep DJs only add a couple of rhythmic fire-truck-siren and electric-crane-arm sounds over top and call that dance music.

Sureshot’s mixes usually veer away from dub and stick to dirty tech-house and drum ‘n bass fortified with world beats. When Sureshot finally made the crowd really get down and dance, his visuals came on the overhead screen instead of an endlessly repeating Beta logo. A sequence of AutoCAD-derived buildings were being built and deconstructed on screen in sync to some extra-heavy bass. Before the mayhem that was Skrillex, Sureshot provided a slightly more tame dance vibe.

Sureshot’s music can also be found here.

Contact CU Independent Photo Editor Kelly Kaoudis at Kelly.kaoudis@colorado.edu.