Bass-heavy artists Eptic, Must Die! and Gentlemens Club are set to welcome students back from Spring Break with a concert tonight at the Florida Theatre, located at 233 W. University Ave.
The concert will be the first time any of the artists have played in Gainesville. It will also kickoff the producers’ massive U.S. spring tour, which will take them from Boston to San Francisco, and everywhere in between.
Matt Collins, the head promoter and owner of Lucid Nightlife, said he became aware of Gainesville’s interest in Eptic after posting on the Gainesville Electronic Dance Music Community Facebook page asking members what artists they’d be interested in seeing. This became more apparent after Getter, another bass-heavy artist blowing up in the electronic world, performed for a large crowd in September.
“Eptic’s name came up a lot early fall when I did that,” Collins said. “We haven’t had too many bass-heavy shows, but after the Getter show it kind of opened our eyes to, ‘Hey, this town, especially the 18 to 21 crowd, they really like trap music.’”
Collins said the Lucid Nightlife team realized the growth the Gainesville electronic market had attained after they brought Hermitude, a duo hailing from New South Wales, Australia to the Florida Theatre in July 2016. Despite taking the risk of bringing an artist during the Summer when substantially less students are on campus, the show was packed with about 700 people in attendance.
“Once we did that, we saw a huge presence,” Collins said. “The incoming freshman class seemed more into the music than previous classes had been the past couple of years. From that show we kind of thought, ‘If we can do a 6,700 person show in the middle of Summer, we can push the envelope when everyone’s here.’”
Since then, Lucid Nightlife has been booking huge names of all genres, including future house superstar Tchami, a French producer who has headlined festivals from Something Wonderful to Spring Weekend.
Collins said booking Tchami was a big step for Lucid Nightlife, especially because they began talking with the producer more than six months prior to the event. The show, which was also held at the Florida Theatre on Feb. 4, 2016, sold out with more than 1,000 people in attendance.
Although tonight’s show isn’t expected to sell the same volume of tickets, all of the artists performing are set to bring powerhouse sound guaranteed to get the crowd moving.
Eptic exploded on the scene back in 2012, at the age of 18, with his “Like A Boss” extended play. The heavy-hitting, four-song collection of tracks remained on the Beatport Top 5 chart for weeks, and it still gets people moving to this day. The artist hasn’t lost momentum since then, releasing an equally gritty dubstep track titled “Flesh Eaters” on March 10.
Collins said the Eptic show is just one part of the growth Lucid Nightlife experienced over the past three years. Over this time, he and the Lucid Nightlife team created a community of concertgoers who attend shows no matter who the headliner is.
“At this point, people are kind of going to shows who don’t even know these artists,” he said. “It’s definitely awesome that the community has entrusted us and supported us the whole time.”
The show, which is presented by local event-planning company Lucid Nightlife and Orlando-based company Alliance Events, will take place from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Mhkaz, a producer based out of Orlando, will be providing opening support. Tickets range from $10 to $15.
