Denver’s favorite dubstep producer, GRiZ, held his second annual “Another World” last weekend in celebration of peace, love and Halloween. Although this year’s festival was scaled back to two nights instead of last year’s three-day-long extravaganza, the impeccable performance and massive scale remained the same. In true GRiZ fashion, there was plenty of dubstep, sax solos, elaborate costumes and more lasers than you could possibly imagine. Although the vibes were far from spooky, the celebratory nature of Halloween saturated 1st Bank from start to finish and definitely launched the audience into Another World.
After the massive success of 2021’s Another World festival, GRiZ had some massive expectations to meet. Thankfully, as soon as he stepped on stage, sporting a full space suit and astronaut helmet, it became abundantly clear that GRiZ was, once again, going all out. What followed was an explosive demonstration of beautiful bass, luminous lasers and an impressive entourage of musical talents singing, rapping and pouring their passions into a myriad of horn instruments.
Night one was definitely the heavier night, and GRiDDIM came out to play on more than one occasion. However, despite the experimental nature of the deep bass music GRiZ delivered with relentless determination for the majority of his hour-and-a-half set, he still made room for his friends and musical colleagues to join him for vocal performances, energetic rap verses and even some dueling trumpet action. From start to finish, the energy was kept high as costumed fans headbanged to some of the heaviest music GRiZ has to offer.
Night two started off equally heavy, but quickly diverted to funky throwbacks and house vibes. The stage design was also slightly different — the rotating stage was stagnant this time around, which gave GRiZ, who dressed up as a disco cowboy complete with a long purple wig and clunky ski glasses, an opportunity to utilize duel CDJs on either side of the stage.
Funk was in the air. Soaking up the spotlight, GRiZ posed with his saxophone before his iconic “Infinite” sax solo began, launching into a funkadelic display of horns and dance vibes. He continued to drop banger after banger spanning GRiZ’s decade-long music endeavors before launching into full house mode for the back half of night two.
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After a 30-minute-long house mix, GRiZ returned to the basics and delivered the most potent moment of the entire weekend with 2019’s “It Gets Better,” a hopeful anthem of innocence and funk roots, complete with colorful joy that’s impossible not to smile at. GRiZ brought out his entire entourage for this one and projected the therapeutic lyrics “I know it gets better, you ain’t gotten be stressed out” on the screen for the audience to sing along and hug their loved ones.
GRiZ closed out night two with his smash hits, “Meduso, “Color of your Soul” and “FUNKONAUT” before giving a quick and impassioned speech to express his gratitude and encourage all his fans to spread love everywhere they go. It certainly seems like that’s what GRiZ aims to do every time he jumps on stage, and this year’s Another World was no different. Whether you were hoping for some nostalgic throwbacks, house vibes or deep dubstep, GRiZ delivered on all fronts.
All photography by Brian Lanzer