Weather had its say over HEX’s debut weekend. Aftershock and Relentless Beats brought their new Bass Music Halloween Experience to Rawhide Festival Grounds in Chandler on October 30-31, and the rain showed up for both nights. Friday brought a lightning evacuation, and Saturday brought relentless mud. Between the storms, two stages of heavy bass kept the crowds moving all night.
Night One: Lightning, Pirates and a Subtronics Meme Party at Rawhide
HEX’s first night opened with the weather the festival had warned about. Rain and a lightning evacuation interrupted the early evening at Rawhide Festival Grounds, but the crowd came back, and the night still closed with Subtronics shaking the ground.
DENNETT: Heavy From the First Drop
Dennett wasted no time, going heavy right out of the gate. Then the rain arrived, forcing a pause, and a lightning threat led to a full evacuation of the grounds. After roughly 45 minutes, gates reopened, and fans streamed back in through a quick re-entry process. For a debut festival, the reset was smooth.
LAYZ: Hard-Hitting but Hard to Love
LAYZ brought a grimy, metal-leaning energy that suited the night’s mood. She debuted a new track with TYNAN and got the crowd moving into a wall of death. The set started with a solid flow, but it lost momentum for me over time. She cycled through dubstep and riddim styles without a distinct sound of her own, and the set felt repetitive. The attitude was there, but the identity wasn’t.
INZO: The Captain Sets Sail
INZO took the stage dressed as a pirate and moved straight into his signature flow. The highlight of the night for me came midway through: an ethereal forest dub track, deep and drawn out, with a light female vocal floating over it. He asked everyone to raise their arms as high as they could “so the whole universe can see,” and the crowd obliged.
From there, the set shifted from that spiritual mood into dubby, wobbly, floaty territory, with a Gorillaz sample and a Gnarls Barkley “Crazy” mix keeping things playful. His purple-and-blue visuals stayed on brand throughout. He built toward a big final 20 minutes, ending with “Overthinker,” lasers, and a huge emotional high. The sound felt like it was raining down on the crowd, which fit the weather. He closed with “Thank you for sailing, ship INZO.”
Subtronics: Meme King and Crowd Commander
Subtronics opened with a “My Way” Frank Sinatra intro and then went straight to bone-shaking bass. The set mixed heavy drops with humor that kept us on our toes at every turn. His insane setlist included a Space Jam sample, the Cupid Shuffle, and obviously a new rework of “Griztronics” to round out the night. And what would a Subtronics set be without some cheeky visuals featuring his own pets?! It’s remarkable how he commands a crowd. Between the meme-heavy sampling and the sheer weight of the sound, he was clearly pushing the decks to their limit. It was the kind of set that justifies a headlining slot at a new festival.
Night Two: Mud, Mario and Excision
Night two skipped the rain delay and evacuation, but the weather still won. The mud and rain were relentless and inescapable from start to finish.
Riot Ten b2b PhaseOne: Mario, Luigi and Pure Aggression
Riot Ten and PhaseOne are both artists who can steal a show on their own, so putting them together was a bold bet. They took the stage dressed as Mario and Luigi and opened with their flip on the iconic video game theme.
The set was built on hardstyle and dirty dubstep. Across both days, it was the hardest and most unique set of the festival. The highlight was their rework of Griztronics, which dropped into a speed bass vibe that left me gasping for air.
ATLiens: Theatrical Transitions and Quick-Hit Samples
ATLiens’ whole set felt theatrical in how they moved in and out of songs, weaving quick samples through the transitions. One of those was “All I Do Is Win” by DJ Khaled featuring T-Pain, Ludacris, Snoop Dogg and Rick Ross. Another notable drop came from their remix of “It’s Goin’ Down” by Yung Joc.
Excision: Back to Lost Lands
Excision closed out the two-night event with a set that felt like we were right back at Lost Lands, with the rain and mud to match. For anyone who hasn’t made the trip, Lost Lands is the festival Excision founded, played out at Legend Valley in Ohio, where colossal production meets even more colossal low ends. He launched it in 2017, and it has since become a prehistoric-themed bass festival known for its dinosaur installations. This year’s edition was no stranger to bad weather either, as a September 2026 review described it as enduring the worst weather in the festival’s history. The comparison fit. Excision opened his set with his iconic remix of Creed’s “One Last Breath.”
The Takeaway
HEX’s first year wasn’t easy. Lightning cut into Friday’s early evening, and Saturday was a slog through mud, but the festival’s handling of the evacuation and re-entry kept the weekend on track. The music made the weather worth it, from INZO’s dub-heavy emotional set and Subtronics’ chaotic meme-fueled closer to Riot Ten and PhaseOne’s hardstyle assault and an Excision finale that felt straight out of Ohio. For a first-year festival, HEX proved that bass fans in Arizona will show up in any conditions.
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