As I approached Concord Music Hall for Downlink‘s show last Thursday evening, one thought continued to cross my mind, “How could this be any worse than my last experience at this venue?” Having been a patron for the failed Datsik show – yes, the same show where falling portions of the ceiling caused him to cancel his set – I figured as long as I made it out of Concord injury free, it would be a win in my book. Luckily, I made it through the night with my health in tact, however, my sanity was another story.
 

 
Fifteen minutes into Mantis’ set, the venue goes dark. Well, not completely dark, but something was clearly wrong. With the decks and the microphone not working, Taylor of Mantis attempted to yell to the crowd that the power was out. However, unless you were in the first row, I doubt you could hear him. Meanwhile the rest of the crowd just stood around for what felt like the better part of 30 minutes. Finally, someone who worked for Concord came on stage, quieted the crowd and announced that the power was out and that all attendees must evacuate the premises until it returns. At this point I couldn’t help but feel like this was some kind of cruel joke. Was Concord just cursed?

Shortly after exiting the venue, I took to Twitter to find any updates on set times. I was eventually able to figure out that the show had resumed at 11:15pm (With Mantis finishing his set around midnight). The next three artists each had hour-long sets from there on out. Unfortunately, I missed all of Mantis and Midnight Conspiracy, and I only caught the end of Dieselboy.

I was, however, there for all of Downlink’s set. And trust me, that one hour of absolutely disgusting dubstep was never needed more by a crowd. It was astonishing to me how many people returned to this event after it had been postponed, but clearly the Chicago dubstep scene was determined to prove that Concord could withstand the rigors of heavy bass music. Downlink was definitely the bright spot during what was an up and down night, so here’s to hoping that Concord’s next dubstep show goes off without a hitch.
 

 

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