This Saturday, March 24th, at Aurora’s Platinum Event Center, the Foam Fest (Get Brainwashed!) came to town. Floorbangers put on this event, offering a novel venue, loads of popular local artist, and of course, buckets and buckets of foam. It was freezing cold outside, but that didn’t stop anyone (myself included) from busting out the swimwear in anticipation of the spring-break style soaking that was about to take place. Headliners for the night included Reid Speed, Ishe, Revolvr, Trajikk & Joman, and many other local artists on two stages, one wet, one dry.

The venue also featured lots of activities for the show-goer: laser tag, arcade games, a bouncy castle, and multiple promo/merch booths. Once I worked my way into the event, I hit up the bouncy castle. It was naturally hilarious and amusing, although my attempts to swing poi inside were failures! Anyways, I loved the venue, and the two stages were excellently set up. The main stage had medium LED screens, lasers, and foam machines. The seven foam machines excited me most, I’d never been to a foam party, and I couldn’t even imagine how much foam was supposed to come out.

The second, “dry” stage was much smaller, but had excellent music nonstop all night. It had meager RGB lights, but I liked the atmosphere in that little side room. The VIP section was nice, and although I only caught a glimpse of it, the “liquor garden” appeared lovely.

The first artist I was able to identify by name was Kommon Interests, a Boulder local. His get up and go electro got me off my feet, and when the first foam started pumping, I was ready to go crazy! Luckily I’d pre-wrapped my flowlights in plastic bags so they wouldn’t get damaged, and I was able to dive right in. Foam pumped out in massive quantities from the ceiling and stage, and quickly puddled on the floor in a giant foam pit. It was soapy and sudsy, unfortunately for my eyes. Some forward thinking attendees had brought goggles and masks, but alas, I did not.

The blast came to an end all too quickly, but Kommon Interests promised more was to follow every hour. Until then, we had an ample amount to frolic in at our feets. Foam beards and berets became the attire of choice.

DJ Ishe, a longtime Denver standby recognisable by his faux-hawk was up next. I’ve seen him play many times before, but this time was disappointing. I knew that someone would play trap, but Ishe juxtaposed it with his massive, ear-blasting, voluminous bass, so it made it all that much more disappointing when he “dropped” into that unchanging, unsatisfying beat. I entered the foam during his set, but the music made me rather tired, and I ended up needing to sit down for most of his set. He even tortured the crowd with a depressing trap “remix” of a Daft Punk song. Luckily, I was able to use the time to check out the laser tag games. It was tons of fun, and a welcome change from the mind numbing set playing outside.

When I emerged, refreshed, I was delighted to see that they’d turned on the lasers, and were projecting them gorgeously into the flowing foam. Laser technology has been on the up and up in the rave scene, and I was pleased to see that even this mid-level production had top notch light engineering. I patiently waited for Ishe to give up the stage to Trajikk and Joman whilst rocking out at the second stage. Once they fired up their tunes, I was praying that they wouldn’t carry on the trap – and they didn’t dissapoint! They got me ready to party once again, and played bouncy mixes of popular songs. I was highly amused when they played a song which sampled Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Charlie singing The Nightman Cometh.

The lasers became gorgeous rainbow cascades of perfectly orchestrated trippiness, radiating through the foam.

Reid Speed was the lady I came to see – and she threw down hard! The foam was pouring down often and heavily, and her quick-paced electro-house had everyone excited. The lasers became gorgeous rainbow cascades of perfectly orchestrated trippiness, radiating through the foam. Reid Speed even repaired the damage Ishe had done to Daft Punk by playing a beautifully remixed version of the same song. By the time Revolvr (https://soundcloud.com/revolvr) came on I was fairly tired from dancing hard in the foam all night, but that didn’t stop me from partying on to his set. He brought the funk, kept the energy high, and kept the foam a-flowin’. I made sure to avoid the last round of suds, since it was below freezing outside, and I was wearing next to nothing. I made my escape, and began the long drive home, with my hair and clothes soaking wet, and a great party beneath my belt.

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