Producer Herobust to perform at Florida Theater

Herobust had a formidable start to 2017 with the February release of his “Vertebreaker” extended play. The Atlanta-based producer’s collection of six tracks is gritty, powerful and heavily influenced by hip-hop, with a title that makes perfect sense after listening to it.

“Vertebreaker” joins a host of other popular tracks made by the producer, some of which were released on notable labels such as OWSLA and Mad Decent. The first song on the EP, also titled “Vertebreaker,” has climbed to nearly 1 million plays on SoundCloud in less than two months.

The overall sound of the EP is not for the faint of heart, featuring growling basslines and heavy rap vocals that pound through speakers of all kind.

Shortly after the EP’s release, Herobust set out on a tour that will take him all over the nation throughout the spring and summer. This Saturday, Herobust will be taking his talents to the Florida Theater for his first ever Gainesville performance.

The show will take place from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m., with tickets ranging from $15 to $25. Florida-based artists FLTHYVBZ, Illegal Maneuver, MarSHen and EazyBaked will perform as openers.

The show will be one of Lucid Nightlife’s last events for the spring, closing off a semester of one massive show after another.

Matt Collins, the owner of Lucid Nightlife, said it made sense to bring Herobust to the Florida Theater.

“He has a very large fanbase, and it’s the end of the year so we figured having it at a larger venue would be best to accommodate everyone,” Collins wrote in an email.

Collins has personally been a fan of Herobust for a long time, and he had the artist on his radar to bring to Gainesville since last fall.

“He is just such an amazingly talented producer and always puts on excellent performances,” he said. “Also, Gainesville enjoys to headbang with the best of them.”

Krista Kingsbury, a 20-year-old UF botany and pharmacy sophomore, attended many of Lucid Nightlife’s shows this semester. Kingsbury saw a snippet of Herobust’s performance at the Imagine Festival in Georgia, and she plans on seeing him once again in Gainesville on Saturday.

“You look around and everybody’s just smiling and having a great time,” she said. “You feel energized, and you see how hard everybody in the crowd’s going. I feel like it’s a good way to get out that stress of school and everything.”

Kingsbury said that beyond being excited for the show, she thinks Lucid Nightlife has stepped their game up, especially over the past semester.

“I like how they’ve moved the majority of shows from Simon’s to Florida Theater,” she said. “We had to get a new venue to hold everybody, and to have sound that’s actually worthy of people like Tchami, Herobust and everybody that’s been coming on these types of tours. I can tell that Matt and his whole crew have been giving it their all this semester. It’s pretty great.”

Herobust is certainly not the last big name Lucid Nightlife is going to bring to Gainesville, with some shows already in the works for the fall.

“Everybody that’s in Gainesville is so into the music scene that no matter who is backing Lucid, it has a good rep,” Kingsbury said. “This town has a good name. They’re just going to keep doing bigger and better things.”