The Unified Field - A Sonic Bloom Pre-Party at Cervantes', 4/30/11

Photo: Britt Chester

A sold-out Cervantes' greeted attendees of last night's Sonic Bloom pre-party. Raised fingers danced through the throngs of people scattered outside hoping for that one person whose friend didn't make it, or for that one person looking to bank some Karma points by hooking up a friend. A small change from the first night saw Jamie Janover taking the microphone for the opening and welcoming everyone for a second night of learning, dancing and togetherness.

Jamie Janover, the founder and creator of Sonic Bloom, came out on stage at 8:15 p.m. to speak to everyone on the Unified Field theory. Alongside Alex and Allyson Grey, Janover first explained the existence of matter, energy, and broke it all down into layman terms, so that we could all have somewhat of an idea as to what he was talking about.

At first, he went into how all atoms are 99.9 percent space, thus inviting everyone to accept that we are all just pieces of space held together by atoms that really aren't even touching. Just as the eyebrows began to raise in reflection, he broke into the geometric aspect of it. He explained the importance of Mayan temples, their locations, and how perfectly geometric they were in terms of the sun location.

Photo: Britt Chester

Alex and Allyson, Jamie Janover in the background

This led into the explanation of a cubal tetrahedron and how perfectly symmetric it is in terms of triangles, circles, vectors and point-to-point lengths. "Is everyone understanding this? Because all of you should be looking at me with confused faces," Janover said when he finished.

Janover held a commanding presence on stage next to the Greys. He spoke with confidence on a subject that many may not have been familiar with, but he didn't do it in the way that made everyone feel stupid. He comfortably flicked through slides, touching on the high points and meandering through the harder points. At one point, he mentioned a number, something to the like of 10^53 grams in regard to the weight of one cubic centimeter of "space."

Project Aspect held the opening spot, but that didn't mean much, since the ballroom was packed out immediately following the lecture. Even that early, 9 p.m. felt like a headliner set as Aspect dropped mixes, opening with a banger with Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance With Somebody." (Check him out Sonic Bloom this year.)

Photo: Britt Chester

Nadis Warriors and the Ballroom

Nadis Warriors, a highly anticipated act on both nights, followed and played what felt to be a heavier set than the previous night. This theme seemed to play through all the acts on the second night with the Ballroom and the Otherside consistently packed for all the artists. When the onesie-sporting, Jose Canseco-esque shades wearing Polish Ambassador came out though, the Otherside exploded. Laughing and dancing behind his tables, Ambassador delivered some hip-hop cuts delightfully fused over heavy dance tracks. "Mathematics," by Mos Def was sped up slightly to keep the BPM's on track, and that was just the beginning. On the heels of Project Aspect, the Ambassador kept the already high energy room on point.

Photo: Britt Chester

The Polish Ambassador pulled out the Gaper Day outfit and slayed the Otherside

Janover was taking over the stage in the Ballroom around 10 p.m., but was having some serious difficulties with his equipment. Apparently, running Powerpoint amongst the copious music programs crashes a computer. Right at the opening of his set, he danced the mallets on his dulcimer for a minute before revealing to the Ballroom that he had to restart his computer. This was actually a foreshadowing for later events in the night, but the delay was accepted with claps and cheers, and then he played on.

Photo: Britt Chester

Janover's set getting underway in the Ballroom

It was difficult to dance between the Ambassador and Janover's sets. Both offer completely different sounds and creations. Coming from the fast paced bass of the Otherside into Janover's melodious sounds was welcoming and actually quite cooling, thanks to the air vents pumping cool wind down on the floor.

As they closed their sets, Heyoka, whom many were talking about all night, began setting up his gear. He opened slow to the full room, but gradually took everyone to the depths of his world with his cool stage presence. This guy is emotionless on stage, a brick wall of creation, but I'll be damned if he doesn't keep everyone in a deep sweat for the whole time.

Photo: Britt Chester

ESKMO in between sound interruptions

ESKMO ran into some serious issues at the opening of his set. Whatever it was had him delayed for about fifteen minutes while the sound guys checked every running wire on the stage. He opened, then it stopped again. Then he played for another chunk of time, and it crashed again. ESKMO was cool about it, though, even if he looked slightly disappointed. Shit happens sometimes, and you take it as it comes. His set featured the same fun, sound-looping toys seen at Snowball, including water bottles, keys, torn paper and crushed cans.

Photo: Britt Chester

The Great Mundane opening into a tribute to mustaches

After The Great Mundane, who opened his set with a song dedicated to mustaches, L.A. based R/D set about closing down of the Otherside with some heavy hammers of sound. He also threw major props to the Denver music scene saying, "For real, everyone, all artists want to come to Denver and just kill it. We know it's a big deal here. Everyone in the country does."

Photo: Britt Chester

LA based R/D came strong and hard for Denver

Damn right.

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