Excision plays in Bend

Published 4:00 am Friday, February 1, 2013

NOTE: The Excision dubstep show scheduled for Wednesday at the Midtown Ballroom in Bend has been canceled.

Ticket purchasers can get a refund at their point of purchase.

Contact: www.axs.com/events/2423/excision.

Over the past several years, the unveiling of the lineup at the giant SoCal-desert music festival Coachella has become a marquee event for web-tethered music nerds. This year’s was released last week.

And if you’re old like me, the past couple lineups have been exercises in head-scratching, as electronic dance music takes over the world, and its superstars ascend into the big fonts on Coachella’s poster.

Like, I know who Bassnectar and Pretty Lights are. But Dog Blood? Benny Benassi? Eric Prydz? At this point, I’ve learned that if I see a name at Coachella that I don’t recognize, chances are good it’s a jet-setting, arena-packing, bass-dropping DJ, probably from Europe.

Sharing a font size with all the aforementioned on this year’s poster is Excision, aka Jeff Abel, a Canadian DJ and producer whose own Facebook profile describes him as “the dubstep demon.”

Excision has only one album to his name, as well a slew of singles and remixes that dabble in other subgenres of electronica — mostly drum and bass — but generally are a particularly aggressive strain of dubstep. This dude goes hard with gnarly, grinding bass, heavy-metal-style blast beats, angry-robot synths; the whole thing is futuristically brutal, and if that sounds horrible to you, ask your kids what they think.

Chances are decent they’ll be among the legions of caved chests and snapped necks (figuratively speaking) partying at the Midtown Ballroom Wednesday night, where Excision will be joined by fellow big names Paper Diamond and Vaski, as well as local DJ Lyfe.

Excision, with Paper Diamond, Vaski and Lyfe; 8 p.m. Wednesday, doors open 7 p.m.; $20 plus fees in advance, available at www.j.mp/excisionbend or at Ranch Records (541-389-6116) in Bend, $25 at the door; Midtown Ballroom, 51 N.W. Greenwood Ave., Bend; www.slipmatscience.com.