Subtronics Breaks Necks During Wild Sunday Show
It was a wild Sunday night, despite the blisteringly cold temperatures determined to keep everyone inside. Maybe that’s what drew so many people out to the third night of Subtronics’ 2025 Armory takeover, because it was cozy and delightful inside the massive expanse of Minneapolis’ premier EDM venue. Subtronics brought a slew of excellent DJs with him to give our poor frozen hearts a reason to get moving and vibing during these darkest days of the season.
The night opened with VKTM, Muzz and Level Up - each bringing their own style and twist on electronic music to the stage. Where VKTM’s masked, anonymous dubstep began the party but bringing us to subterranean levels of bass, Muzz’s pulse-pounding drum’n’bass brought a more high-energy, brighter sheen to the evening. Level Up book-ended the opening sets with a nasty dubstep set that incorporated a bevy of video-game inspired imagery, iconography and samples.
The penultimate act of the night was mysterious-masked master of dance Deathpact. Though being in the scene since roughly 2018, there continues to be speculation about who Deathpact is - or whether it’s more than one person. The one thing that is certain is that the Rezz-collaborator(s) are an expert in tapping directly into what makes electronic music so powerful in a live stage. Their hour of genre-hopping electronic music felt so sincere and genuine and groovy, it was impossible to not get lost in the set almost immediately. This of course was amplified by their ominous glowing facemask and trippy visuals. It was during this set that the massive laser rig was let loose for the first time, sparkling over the crowd from the top of the massive LCD screen that was splattered with fiery red motifs for the whole set. Not a single word was spoken by the artist for their entire set - leaving as mysteriously as they arrived and letting their powerful music and visuals speak for themselves.
Subtronics has been a regular in Minneapolis for a few years now, and it’s easy to see why. The Philadelphia native has been crushing the dubstep scene for well over a decade, and the ambitiousness that he and his crew bring to marrying that aggressive wub destruction to the scene’s most impressive lighting displays is best in class. This year’s rig - the so-called Cyclops rig - mounted 12 panel-lined squares along three huge lighting rigs, meaning each moment of Jesse Kardon’s razor-sharp production was swath in an army of lights, lazers and flares. The visual presentation was overwhelming - in a good way - an assault on the senses that transported you as comprehensively as the music itself, which surely is what the team is going for.
Plumes of flame and explosions of sparks interspersed with long moments of shadow and an ominous glow paired perfectly the headbanging hell that Subtronics brought this evening. Grabbing photos in the pit, you could feel the entire floor move as the front of the crowd headbanged in unison, feeling like the building might collapse at any moment. The wubs and self-described ‘robot noises’ demanded that the Cyclops army mosh, and mosh they did, as a huge pit opened in the center of the Armory. This was pretty much the status quo for the entire evening as Subtronics rolled through hit after hit, explosions of light pairing with every bass drop and glows of the hanging squares dazzling with each new pulse-pounding beat.
In short, it’s something that really has to be seen (and heard, and felt) to be believed. Subtronics’ live show has no equal and I can’t wait to see what they cook up next!
