Tag Archives: Rob Gee

Field Report: Trauma in the Golden Bay

Posted by Joel Bevacqua on Sunday, February 14, 2016

Like opera in a construction zone, hardcore techno and hardstyle sang through the city of San Francisco last night, to the utter delight of the Bay Areas’s harder styles faithful. Fittingly, in my dutiful jaunt through the fabled city, I came upon a man doing just that, singing opera in a construction zone. I believe his name is Robert Grant. Coincidentally, in quite operatic fashion, a group of crazy Italians would help strengthen a growing Bay Area harder styles scene. DJ Vortex, Super Marco May, The Melodyst, Amnesys, Placid K and DJ Mad Dog represented the boot-shaped country and fittingly kicked the Bay Area into overdrive. They were joined by the up-and-coming Tonegenerator, legends Scott Brown, Rob Gee, The Prophet, and adroitly MC’ed by Mike Redman.

My review unfortunately is somewhat incomplete though, I must confess. Because of a scheduling foul-up at the airport, and weather delays out of Edmonton, Canada that afternoon, I would not arrive to the Regency Ballroom until almost 11:30 last night. Approximately 7 hours was spent by yours truly yesterday and night en route to San Francisco.

Finally my flight arrived in San Fran to witness DJ Mad Dog

Posted by Joel Bevacqua on Sunday, February 14, 2016

Nonetheless, I caught the tail end of The Prophet, who as expected, rocked the crowd to an appreciative hardstyle fan-base. He was followed by DJ Mad Dog, who continued his path of North American destruction, making the crowd go bonkers. Placid K followed with his signature classic hardcore style. The Melodyst picked up after that with their new school sound and the exclamation mark was put on the end of the night by Rob Gee.

Frankly all the sets I heard were just as banging in San Francisco as in Edmonton the night before. What was interesting though was the San Francisco crowd itself. San Francisco in previous decades had a robust punk rock and industrial scene, producing legendary bands like the Dead Kennedys. So, that underlying spirit in the Bay Area has always existed, and it was just a matter of time until some aspect of it surfaced again. What I saw was a spark of a new scene developing. That perfect moment when everyone in the crowd gets to know each other. It was pretty cool seeing the crowd go for it to music that was mostly new to them. Many people came for the bigger names, but were exposed to new things they liked, and got to meet like-minded individuals in the process.

It would unfair to call it the “birth” of a scene when crews like Spaz and 5lowershop have been doing underground hardcore parties for decades now. But, there was a whole new wave of ravers and party-goers getting their first taste of rocking out to a wide spectrum of the harder styles! Next stop: Los Angeles.

Field Report: Edmonton: Trauma Live’s Harder Styles Tour 2016 .

The Harder Styles Tour kicked off with a banging kickdrum last night when DJ Vortex opened up the tour his sage-like lessons in hardstyle. The unlikely locale of this seminal outburst was frigid Edmonton, Alberta, best known in these parts as the home of the Oilers and the legendary Wayne Gretsky. I’m still smarting from the night the Oilers sneaked out of the Pittsburgh Civic Arena with a win as Mario Lemieux and Gretzky battled it out on the ice. I suppressed my prejudices though and found a lot to like in Edmonton. Most notably the crowd liked it hard, and so it was a pleasure to be in the midst of mutual transaction of hard beats and appreciative crowd.

Edmonton gets Trauma, and loved it.
Edmonton got Trauma, and loved it.

 

Despite strong ticket sales, the venue wasn’t particularly crowded, as the frigid and windy -11 degree Celsius weather kept only the most maniacal home safe in their blankies. MC Mike Redman kept the crowd psyched the entire night, straddling that perfect MC balance between chiming in at the right time and not getting’ all walky-talky. After Vortex MC Redman introduced Super Marco May. You might’ve read his interview on the THD site, and he lived up to the hype it suggested, representing Italian hardstyle in splendid fashion.

Scott Brown reads The HARD DATA
Scott Brown reads The HARD DATA

You might have thought you were in Little Italy until Scott Brown jumped on the decks and cranked up the happy. Happy hardcore that is. He even played one of my old faves, “Now is the Time.” After which he took a well-deserved rest and read the latest issue of The Hard Data, rumor has it. Amnesys jumped on stage next and played a little of everything. He started kinda slow, playing Alien T’s Hammer of the Devil, and then picked up the pace with some of his soon-to-be classics, Shockwave and Embrace the Ultimate. In the middle of it all, he even threw in some dub-step sounding tracks which was a nice change of pace.

The Prophet in Edmonton
The Prophet in Edmonton

One of the best sets of the night was next, The Prophet. Easily the crowd favorite that night, the Scanntraxx CEO busted out a surprisingly hard-as-nails hardstyle set. I wouldn’t really call it rawstyle, it was just straight banging hardstyle. I like the fact that he played “Here We Go” because of the awesome hoover in its break and its old school sound. I still think the track was inspired by Edge of Motion, but I didn’t get the chance to grill The Prophet about it, dear readers, as he was busy interacting with his fans most of the night.

Mad Dog took to the decks next, and he made it clear that 150 BPM was “not his Tempo,” because he promptly busted out his floor crushing epic, “Not My Tempo.” It doesn’t get much clearer than that, and the BPM’s instantly skyrocketed to the delight of the hardcore faithful (you can read the Mad Dog Interview in the latest issue of THD).

Mad Dog at Trauma Edmonton
Mad Dog at Trauma Edmonton

The hardcore onslaught continued as Placid K, not to be out-hoovered, laid down one of the thickest hoover sounds of the night at the beginning of his set. After all these years, lets face it, there’s nothing like a huge freakinig hoover sound on a banging system to get the blood flowing to all the capillaries. The rest of his set was his signature old school hip hop samples tightly woven with that classic Italian hardcore drive, which set the stage for the new breed of hardcore heroes, The Melodyst.

They sprang out the gate with their new track “New Dawn” and when the kick came in, it sounded wicked sick. Whatever special sauce they are adding to their 909’s, I want to know because it immediately drove the crowd into a state of frenzy.

At this point, you are probably thinking, “ok, what could they possibly do next to top the night off?” Well, the icing on the cake was our own made-in-the-USA Rob Gee, who went absolutely ape behind the decks. Just when you thought you couldn’t dance no more, the Gee-Man set a fire under everyone’s you-know-whats. If there was one drop of sweat left in that crowd, Rob made sure to squeeze it out with an energetic and inspiring performance befitting the first night of the Trauma Harder Styles Tour 2016. Next up, on to the Golden State in the U.S. of A.

Rob GEE Interviewed! The Trauma Harder Styles Tour 2016

Rob GEE, you’re playing at ALL stops on the Trauma Harder Styles Tour- Edmonton, San Fransisco, Los Angeles, Mesa, AZ, Denver, CO, Pittsburgh, PA and Brooklyn, NY! That’s going to be almost 1 month straight of spreading your crazy style across North America, are you excited? What can people who’ve never seen you before expect?

I am very very very excited. Everybody should just expect 1,000,000% Pure EnerGEE 😉 Let’s see who sweats harder 😀

Have you ever done anything like this before? What other experiences stand out in your mind?

Well, I have done full tours throughout Europe and Australia with my Hardcore peers, but I have really only done one-offs in the USA. The only thing that comes close to this are the times when I was on tour with Hatebreed, Biohazard, Slipknot, and System Of A Down, so this will be very be awesome to tour my country with my Hardcore and Hardstyle peers.

Photo by : PierreW.de
Photo by : PierreW.de

How have you seen the scene change over the years and how have you had to adapt your style?

The scene is constantly changing, and production keeps getting better and better. The more technology grows, the sky is the limit with what you can do. Besides my solo productions, I have had the honor and pleasure of working with the generations that came after me like Adaro, AniMe, The BeatKrusher, Furyan, Mad Dog, & Noize Suppressor. In the past I used to save my voice for my productions, but I have opened my mind and I’m glad I did. We have a mutual respect for one another and we always have fun. That’s important, and I love the result.

And of course, I have made the switch from Vinyl to CDs to USB and I might be moving onto Media Card as well. I’m sure one day we will be able to just think the music and project to the crowd. lol

As you said, you’ve worked with a handful of international artist for collabs in the past (Neophyte, Adaro, Mad Dog, and Anime just to name a few), what will it be like playing alongside some of the biggest names overseas here in North America? Any future collabs we should be watching for?

Rob Gee at Trauma
Rob Gee at Trauma

Well, I play along side them already in Europe all the time, but this will be nice because it’s my homebase.

Future collabs for 2016 include-

Hardcore wise: be on the lookout for Brutale & Rob GEE, The Sickest Squad & Rob GEE, Art Of Fighters & Rob GEE, PartyRaiser, DJ Paul & Rob GEE, Dr Peacock & Rob GEE, Motordogs, F-Noize, & Rob GEE, and more with Noize Suppressor & Rob GEE, Mad Dog & Rob GEE.

For Hardstyle and Rawstyle : The Prophet & Rob GEE, Adaro & Rob GEE, and Gunz For Hire & Rob GEE.

Right now go check out Chem D, The Mastery, Da Mouth Of Madnes & Rob GEE “Old Dog New Tricks” off my brother Da Mouth Of Madness‘ new album “Old Dog New TriXX”

Also 2016 marks the 20 years anniversary of my hit “You Got What I Need” : There will be special remixes from the Art Of Fighters, The Sickest Squad, F-Zoize, and Dr. Rude to name a few, but I will also be launching a remix contest for up and coming producers to take a shot at this classic. The winner’s remix will be released commercially.

Photo by : Gerard Henninger
Photo by : Gerard Henninger

Hardcore is generally a particularly brutal genre, can you explain what inspires your #PositivianVibes concept?

The beats might be brutal, but the message is positive. Life is too short. I choose to lift people up. We all have our bad days, but at the end of day I believe we all want to be happy with the least amount stress. Sometime that is hard, but we must be strong. I have no time for negativity and hate.

Lastly (See our interview with Lenny Dee here to see what Lenny said) who would win in a pie eating contest between you and Lenny Dee?

From my size you would probably think me, but Lenny can eat. I think we should just actually do it. lol

Thank you so much for taking the time to interview with us Rob, it was a pleasure to hear from you and we’ll catch you at ALL the stops along the Trauma Tour! 

Connect with Rob here:

https://www.facebook.com/TheRealRobGEE/

www.ReverbNation.com/RobGEE

www.twitter.com/THEREALROBGEE

www.twitter.com/THEPOSITIVIANS

www.MySpace.com/RobGEEADAMWorldWide