Last weekend, I was lucky enough to attend Goldrush: Wild Card. This year’s Goldrush music festival was held at Phoenix Raceway on October 4th and 5th. While big names like Ganja White Night and Black Tiger Sex Machine built the hype, I was excited by how many artists were on the lineup that I had either never heard of or had only seen mentioned. So, while everyone was talking about the big-name artists they wanted to see, I made it my mission to get to the festival early to check out the smaller and upcoming artists, hoping to find my next music obsession.
I started off night one with Guestlist b2b Chiief, two hometown artists who appeared to be doing their best to outdo each other’s chopping skills on the CDJs while also playing out the most ridiculous double/triple drops and remixes. The highlights included an insane remix of Badadan played by Chiief, and Guestlist tripling Subtronic’s Mind Pluck with Lil Jon and Drowning Pool.
After that, I experienced my first great musical surprise of the weekend: Nikademis, an artist from Colorado whom I had never heard of. He quickly made an impression on me. I was mesmerized by the way he transitioned beautiful melodic songs into bone-crushing intense drops, and his set ran the gamut of bass music genres almost flawlessly. Even when he was told to play an extra fifteen minutes to fill time, he continued to throw down without hesitation.
Hologenix from London was up next, another DJ I knew nothing about going in. His set started off with some of the deepest, dirtiest wompy beats I would hear all weekend before transitioning fully into UK-style liquid drum and bass, which had the entire crowd moving for the remainder of his time.
Later that night, the bigger stages were taken over by the big names in the electronic music scene. Timmy Trumpet played a set that sounded straight from the main stage at EDC. Ganja White Night delivered an epic performance with all my favorites and their new collab with Tape B. Ray Volpe dropped his signature heavy bass, but this time I made my way over to see hometown legend Dark Mark perform at the Sound Cabin Art Car.
Dark Mark is well known in the Phoenix bass scene, a friend to almost all the local DJs, and someone whose recommendations people trust. Seeing him play at the pirate-themed art car was a treat. His set was absolutely bonkers, with the grungiest, dirtiest riddim chopped in mind-boggling ways.
Sullivan King closed out the festival with an unmissable set. His reckless remix of Ecstasy of Gold by Zed’s Dead and Griz, complete with his own live guitar solo, and bringing out Ray Volpe for their new collab, had me headbanging right up to the end. But luckily, that wasn’t the end of my night, as Sullivan King was also playing the afterparty.
This was my first time attending a Relentless Beats-hosted afterparty at Phoenix Raceway, so I didn’t know what to expect. I waited in line outside the warehouse, which had housed the house stage during the festival, and once inside, I found a large air-conditioned room with leather couches where people could rest. San Diego-based HIGHSOCIETY was warming up the decks.
HIGHSOCIETY, an artist I hadn’t heard of before, surprised me with his “Datamosh” sound, blending glitchy computer noises into his beats. He started slow as people trickled in but soon transitioned to hard-hitting drum and bass, eventually switching to metal dubstep to get the crowd hyped for Sullivan King‘s second performance.
When Sullivan King took the stage again, he played a completely different set, more improvised and filled with remixed club songs. At times, it was reminiscent of his Sullivan King and Kai Wachi “meal prep” sets—house music with a unique twist. I stayed as long as I could before my body told me it was time to go home and recover for day two.
Day two kicked off with the masked riddim DJ Sanzu, whose heavy set hit hard right at 6 PM, despite my not being fully recovered from the day before. The crowd was already jumping to the crunchy riddim drops as Sanzu mixed in silence, his mask covering his face.
The biggest surprise of the weekend came next: Heyz. I had never heard of Heyz or seen his name on a lineup before, and the crowd around me seemed just as unfamiliar. But when his set started, his dark, wonky remixes of popular bass tracks, followed by original music that made me want to headbang, immediately grabbed everyone’s attention.
Next, I was excited to witness Hvdes, the artist I had been looking forward to the most. With her haunting vocals and emo influences shining through, she delivered a set that had everything: dubstep, bouncy beats, and even a Nickelback remix. My favorite part was when she played “F*** My Nose Up.” I just wish she had performed more of her original tracks.
I wandered over to the silent disco, where I joined a crowd listening to the young duo Rip Off on the green channel. Their set was heavy with classic riddim hits, and watching them in ski masks, clearly having the time of their lives, was a highlight of the night. Later, I was lucky enough to attend a last-minute fan meet-up with Hvdes, who posted about it on Twitter. Seeing her heartfelt reaction to the fans who showed up was heartwarming, and I even got to give her a special perler I had made.
I ran next to see OG Nixon, “The West Coast Don.” This was the wonkiest set I’d seen from him, with a mix of his usual riddim and some more melodic music from his new project. The crowd seemed split, but I enjoyed the fresh direction. The festival ended with Inzo b2b Mersiv, a set filled with emotional, wompy bass that captured the fun of a good b2b performance. Their sounds blended seamlessly, and I hope to see them play together again.
Goldrush: Wild Card was truly a wild experience, packed with great music. I feel lucky to have discovered so many new artists, and my playlist is about to explode as I dig into all their catalogs. I can’t wait for the day I see one of these artists on the main stage at Lost Lands and get to tell the story of how I first saw them at a festival in my hometown.
