The roof of the Limegrove Lifestyle Centre was the most fitting operating theatre for one of dubstep’s pioneers, DJ Skream to operate on the ears of Barbadians and many visitors alike, all of whom came out and had a blast.
Dubstep, despite being a very young genre within the electronic dance music (EDM) family, has in the last few years been gaining ground around the world and Barbados has been no exception to the syncopation of its rhythm and wobble of its bass.
It is this musical creation, born out of Southern London in the very late 1990s, early 2000s that caused Skream to be the man that everyone present wanted to see, or rather, hear.
The anticipation was huge, and sporadic browses around the venue did not reveal a single frown, except on the face of a frustrated barman.
The night out was cool, and one could not help but notice how the numerous laser lights, the pyrotechnics being launched at the correct moment, and the open sky, above all, came together to create the perfect setting. Not even a brief set of heavy rainfall could have stopped the couple hundred lovely people from partying.
Before Skream started his set, the audience was treated to a pleasant precursor by the name of DJ Silver, who is also from Britain, more specifically Manchester. DJ Silver started his set with a bang and brought it to an ecstatic end with Labrinth’s UK #2 single, Earthquake featuring Tinie Tempah.
At the end of DJ Silver’s set, the 25-year-old Skream started his and sent unpredictable ripples through the crowd as he played many popular dubstep and drum and bass tunes including his remix of La Roux’s In For The Kill and Chase & Status’ Duppy Man, which was pulled up, reggae dancehall style, a total of three times.
His set was unintentionally extended by more than 30 minutes because the crowd kept asking for more and more and he obliged a total of eight times, after having said “thank you”, twice as many times.
Known as one of dubstep’s pioneers, Skream, whose real name is Oliver Dene Jones admitted in an interview after the show, that he came with very little expectation and was nervous about playing before a crowd in a country where “American music” is by far more popular than electronic dance music.
“I was in my hotel room from 11 this morning, just planning my playlist, because I heard about the problems with the genre not being as huge”.
However, in the end, the response from the crowd was mind-blowing, with Skream posting on his Facebook fan page a couple hours after his performance ended, “I could not have asked for a better reaction last night! I think I opened Bajans eyes to dubstep!”
Skream is no doubt the biggest personality brought to these shores by Radio Casareep and the show’s organizer, Sam Golesorkhi, who said of the night’s unfolding: “On a whole, things went pretty good. Everybody that was supposed to come out came out and they all had a good time.”
He added that the scene as it currently stands is a very small market, but “we’re going to continue doing what we’re doing”; vague words, but a whole lot of promise for those who love dubstep.
