We didn't plan on walking into Congress twenty minutes from last call Tuesday night but sometimes you have to throw your plans aside and go where the night takes you. The walls of the building pulsed under the weight of the bass inside, hypnotizing us, calling us into spontaneous action. Ignoring the spell cast by crunkstep dj, Crizzly, was out of the question.

By the time we stepped out in front of the stage, Crizzly already had the dance floor in a bass induced frenzy. Blending together dubstep, hip hop, and drum and bass into his party ready remixes, the young dj took control of the crowd. The production value of his set proved that the young artist was already wise in the ways of electronic music. In a blur of shaking hands with people and a little networking here and there, I was off stage, waiting to talk to the dj.

Crizzly, is a man shrouded in a certain aloofness, or shall we say, mystique. Keeping it short and sweet, he shared a little about his first visit to Tucson. “It was awesome. Tucson are a very humble people. I met a few of them and they were very nice. I had a good time.” His visit here was part of a tour, of epic proportions. “My whole life is a tour. I was only home for like a day this week.” He is a busy man, performing at the Never Say Never Festival in Misson, Texas and Electric Forest Festival, Rothbury, Michigan, later this year.

“I want to give them something to dance to. I mean, its music. Its a club. Thats the premise, gotta make um dance.” Crizzly's manifesto holds true out across the crowd who could all relate to and understand his greatest influences.  “Radio, television, internet, food. I'm influenced a lot by what I eat.” It was certainly a “cordon blu” quality set.

I wish I would have stumbled onto this show a bit earlier on, as those twenty minutes were the hardest I danced all night. I can only imagine what kind of satisfying fatigue the full set produced in the rest of the club. Crizzly has created well crafted and entertaining party tracks that will keep you up and bouncing until the club kicks you out. There's a reason he has earned his “must watch” status in the dubstep community and you can hear it in his grimey, cracking bass.

Photo Credits:
Sami Gardner