Excision @ Hollywood Palladium || Event Review

On Jan 30th, Excision brought The Paradox Tour through to Hollywood. Excision at the Palladium last year was a personal highlight of 2015. This year’s show is sure to be one of the top moments of 2016 without a doubt. Check out the full review below!

Seeing Excision for the umpteenth time was just as fresh as when I saw him the first time at EDC Las Vegas 2013. Anticipation was very strong for the Paradox Tour for months now; we were very excited for the Southern California stop. Leading up to the event, I spent hours writing and researching everything I could to inform everyone about this event. Even after the event preview was posted, I was adamantly staying in contact with everyone on Social Media. Sometimes they had follow-up questions. Sometimes they were asking new questions. Some of the lovely readers were even able to get me more information as the event got closer!

Pre-show

Riding up from San Diego was a breeze, as traffic miraculously wasn’t bad on the way there. We were surprised at how quickly we made it up. We had so much time in fact, we were able to get lunch before checking into the hotel. With all this extra time, we were making more kandi, listening to assorted Dubstep tracks to get us hyped for tonight. I even had enough time to type up another article before the show. After my group got dressed and ready for the show, we walked the two blocks to the Palladium. What we saw next was both exhilarating and excruciating.

The line to enter was stupendously long. As in, the line for this show was longer to me than the shuttle line out of EDC Las Vegas any day, any time. There was a .3 mile (mostly single file) line to enter. Two and a half hours was my total wait time. It probably was longer for others. However, the line was incredibly civil. We all knew that there was nothing we could do to change the situation, so we just stayed calm, stayed excited and talked amongst each other. There were people helping others take group pictures, games played between groups, discussions and rumors; there was nothing but positive vibes. Each step closer was encouraging, and at no point was anything thrown, expletives yelled, or people acting out. Once we got to the gate, the people in line were jumping for joy. We had everything out of pockets, set aside for the security to check our items, and we were off to ticket check. The ticket check line took no time at all. We walked in, swung past the merch booth, and were in. We were unable to get to see Ryle or Bear Grillz at any capacity, but in time to at least catch some of FIGURE’s set.

FIGURE

After meeting a few of my friends that were already inside and catching up, we made our way all the way to the front of the stage area. Much to our surprise, the left side (stage right) was actually more spacious than the right side. While I’m not as familiar with FIGURE as I am with Excision, the track that emanated with me most was when he played “The Werewolf.” I’m told that he rarely ever plays this song live; but tonight we got to hear it! The crowd was headbanging, thrashing, even a few small moshpits were forming. His set was incredibly dark and brooding. There wasn’t any lights on him. The only lights going out were these lime green spotlights that went out and illuminated parts of the crowd. The crowd was amped and having a grand ol’ time.

After FIGURE’s set, there was an intermission to set up the Paradox stage. They had done some light checks during FIGURE’s set, but nothing in a distracting capacity. During this intermission, I had been introduced to two people who had invited my crew up to the bottle service area, where they had a table waiting. We went up to catch the view, and enjoy a drink before Excision goes on. From upstairs, looking down, there was a sea of people in GA eagerly waiting to see Excision. Thousands of people frozen in place was quite a sight. We all felt at peace, the calm before the storm.

Excision

Once the stage was ready, it became eerily silent. No house music. The stage was dark and the lights went out. An ominous rumble filled the room. Red lights appear before the stage, forming a grid. A heavily distorted voice speaks. “Long ago, before the birth of mankind…ancient deities discover a mystical power… a powerful great; it could destroy Earth… they sacrificed… to contain this power… until now.” The curtain drops and the Paradox is revealed. The sound of air raid sirens fill the room. The buildup was immense. Screams from both the crowd and the speakers are deafening.  Opening with “The Paradox”, he got the crowd into a frenzy right away. The visuals were out of this world; it was similar to a spacecraft spiraling through hyperspace. The bass alone was shaking the building, the chandeliers and everyone inside. After one song, we knew being upstairs was too far away for us. So we made our way into the crowd and up as close as we could.

As we made it through the crowd, Excision was playing a visual with zombies hobbling across the stage area, with a gigantic saw in the center slicing them up. He played part of his Shambhala 2014 intro We got to the front just in time to catch “Robo Kitty,” a recent crowd favorite. A few more songs later, he brought the tempo down a notch for his remix of Band of Horses’ “Funeral.” Tombstones swirled around the Paradox screen, and the crowd had their hands up throughout the song. It was a wonderful moment, as he had everyone rocking from side to side and had people in tears. This was one of the first times that the crowd was consistently illuminated enough to understand the dynamic of the show. The crowd was nothing but happy, feeling great, and overall bewildered by the show.

Fast forwarding a bit, Excision was “Bringing the Madness” and had two of those inflatable dinosaur costumes up on stage. As they trampled around, a third dinosaur appeared. This T-Rex was definitely high quality, and the crowd was screaming as it roared out into the crowd as the Paradox showed images of Parasaurolophus and a dense jungle flora. The crowd loved it; they could not get enough of those dinosaurs. After that, I made my way back into the upstairs balcony area. The original intention was to take a few pictures from a different perspective. However, I ended up talking to a few kandi aficionados and making some trades. By the time I got back downstairs, Excision was playing “Africa” while holding up a stuffed Simba doll. After that song, I swung my the merch booth, where they had quite a few of Excision’s merch available from previous years, as well as a few exclusives (Two for The Paradox and a Demascus brand Bassrush shirt). They also had Bear Grillz and FIGURE merchandise (including a limited FIGURE pin) available.

I made my way up to the front again in time to catch Datsik making an appearance and lend a hand on the Paradox stage. They played a few more songs together, and Excision finished off with “See you guys at EDC!.” The stage went dark, and the crowd went silent. The barrage of visuals, percussive bass, and Dubstep left the crowd truly destroyed. Looking at the time, I had no idea it was already 2:15am. I start mentioning to my friend that if there were to be an encore, it’d have to be “Get Stupid.” As if on cue, The Paradox lights up once again, and the all too familiar opening for “Get Stupid” comes blasting out of the PK Sound speakers. The crowd goes nuts once again, and everyone is headbanging through it all. When the house lights go on, white spotlights forming X’s were across the front of the stage. The crowd threw their X’s up in response, finishing out the night.

Hard-hitting songs flowed together seamlessly. The energy was as strong as the bass was loud. This was by far the best set we have ever seen him throw down, and well worth the price of admission and time waiting. The Paradox was beyond any of my wildest imaginations, and he has set the bar really high with that presentation. We are in awe of his accomplishment, and look forward to whatever Excision is ready to bring the next time around!

Want to know more about Excision?

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FIGURE has some spooky good sounds too!

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Bear Grillz is more than your average bear:

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