Saturday, February 16th, Life in Color visited CU Boulder’s Balch Field House. Life in Color, previously Dayglow, is a touring paint party which brings both a wide selection of EDM, and gallons of multicolored paint to crowds across North America. They tend to cater to local tastes, and Boulder’s show was decidedly bass-centric (with a splash of trap thrown in). Borgore and 7 Lions were headlining, no doubt due to Borgore’s recent history of successful sets in the area. I was pumped for the show, having missed Dayglow’s last visit to Colorado in 2011, and ready to get absolutely COVERED in paint!

Once in line (while half-frozen in my booty-shorts), I was told that I wouldn’t be allowed to wear kandi or bring glowsticks into the show. Now, I was practically coated in a layer of kandi, and had brought many-a glowstick to spin poi with, so I was quite upset as I ran to stash my “banned paraphernalia” in a nearby tree. Security, police and paramedic presence was excessive, but understandable since the show was on a college campus. I’m sure that Life in Color was much rowdier at other venues because of this, but it was a novel location, and it was still pretty rowdy! Despite being an 18+ show, I was not ID’ed, and despite all the security, I saw loads of people sneaking in through the sides. And yet no kandi!

Jimmy Burns was on-stage, playing uninspired trap music. I kept trying to dance, but the beat was too repetitive and boring to get my groove on at all. At this point I was highly unsatisfied with the show- no kandi, no lights (except ones they sold inside), no paint, bad music, why did I pay $40 to go to this? It was too early to quit out though, so I soldiered on. Jimmy’s set finally ended (to a chorus of half-boos), and TYR put on some seriously refreshing beats. After an hour of painful trap music, his wide range of music was almost enlightening! He also had the honor of unleashing the first spurts of paint into the crowd, via a squirt gun. Entertainers also began to come onstage, in stilt-assisted costumes ranging from tall, plastic carnival men to gangly unicorn-esque beasts who lurked around the edges of the crowd and stage. At this point I began to have a better time, and began to look past the traptastic start to the night.

Around 10 pm, TYR handed off the stage to Basscrooks, a duo spawned from DJ Wushu and DJ Empir3. They ended up playing a massive 2 hour set since 7 Lions was unable to play- they missed their flight into Colorado. Basscrooks’ set was a bit generic, they played many popular dubstep songs in anticipation of the paint drop at midnight.

The countdown came and went, and there was no paint. The crowd was jam-packed at this point, as Basscrooks decided that it would be a fabulous time to take a Harlem Shake video. Needless to say, it wasn’t, and the entire thing fell apart somewhere between the screams of people getting squished while the entire crowd was trying- and failing- to sit down, and the anger at the mistimed paint drop settling in. Finally he gave up, and coated the crowd in the paint we’d been waiting for.

The girls were looking simply sloppy, and Borgore wasn’t about to miss that!

Things got really crazy after this- the booths began selling paint to the crowd, and jets of paint from the stage and the surrounding fray became completely unavoidable. I got paint in my hair, my clothes, even my eyes (thankfully it didn’t sting). The girls were looking simply sloppy, and Borgore wasn’t about to miss that! He came out onstage with his “Cream Machine”, which was rigged to blast the crowd with even more paint. He played his dopest songs, and kept the atmosphere filthy for the filthy crowd. The VJs fired up the full array of LED towers and screens for Borgore to display his usual hoes on screen. The most outstanding part of his set was the live-sung version of Foes (my favorite Borgore song). The crowd got wilder and wilder as gallon after gallon of paint soaked in, and when it was time to leave, I was thoroughly painted and satisfied. There had been more than a few hiccups in the night, but the overall insanity of the event was irrefutable. I’ll definitely be attending next year, although I hope that they choose a venue where patrons can get even wilder next year, and that there aren’t as many issues detracting from the paint-doused debauchery.