By Daniel Paiz

The Halluci Nation electrifies Meow Wolf Denver on the first day of October by sampling across a wide spectrum of sounds. There are open format DJs, and there are artists like The Halluci Nation, comprised of Tim “2oolman” Hill and Ehren “Bear Witness” Thomas. These two blend and merge everything imaginable.

At first it sounded like Cumbia and Reggaeton, followed by some Hip-Hop and drum machines, and then drum and bass?!? However, this terrific twosome plays reggae, moombahton (a mixture of reggaeton and house music), Hip-Hop, and dubstep-inspired sounds. Then, they fuse them together with First Nations music, primarily the drumming and chanting aspects of said music.

These two also had a dope opener by the name of Creeasian, a performer with his own unique blend of tunes and moves. After dropping his own energy-infused set, this opening act periodically came out through the headliner’s set and danced onstage. Creeasian switched between contemporary, and First Nations outfits each time he came out; the crowd loved his energy.

Before diving deeper into the alluring array of sounds and beats, one must first take a look around at the venue in Meow Wolf.

When the venue plays a part in the show

For those unfamiliar with Meow Wolf, it is an art exhibit similar in manner to a museum; but, of places and peoples Earth folk do not know. Basically, the place is a visual trip of art that also has a local scavenger hunt baked inside. This artsy hub exists in Denver as well as in Las Vegas, Texas, and the place where it began, Santa Fe. The Convergence Station is what Denver’s iteration of the place is called, and just past the elevators is the venue.

It has a feeling of a smaller venue smooshed together with the altar of a Christian-related church. There’s some stain glass window-esque views behind the performance area, and the walls are tree-like. For The Halluci Nation’s event, the group brought along some visuals. Bear Witness worked on this mesmerizing scenes and images.

Those views were fantastically crafted for this show. A multitude of pop culture references including wrestling’s The Ultimate Warrior, Apocalyptico’s Jaguar Paw, and Michael Jackson were just some of the faces to pop up. Stars far beyond our universe littered the walls before shifting into 90s computer art, and then again into First Nations art patterns. The visuals then merged with characters from movies and TV shows depicting Indigenous peoples and also displayed the group’s logo as well.

Delivering a soundscape of genres

If there’s a dance genre you desire, then there’s a chance that sound rumbled along the walls of this show. The majority of the sounds were related to dubstep and house, but other genres reverberated as well. The fellas sprinkled in some Cumbia quite nicely, and there was some back and forth with moombahton and Hip-Hop.

What made their set at Meow Wolf stand out for this listener is the pacing throughout. Somehow while the BPM felt high and the beats hit hard, there was a fluidity to this set. There were builds and drops, tensions and releases. The crowd would be bouncing around, and then cooly and calmly nodding those heads. This sequence was repeating, gradually over and over. Yet, it never got monotonous. These guys also made it abundantly clear who they are, what their sound is, and how activist John Trudell inspired their name.

I’ll leave you with this song to understand what I and many others experienced this first of October:

The Halluci Nation knows how to rock a room, and here’s to hopefully seeing them again in the future.