Mesmerism Presents - Sonic Blizzard 2: 2020 Vizionz
- Jay See
- Jan 29, 2020
- 3 min read
Our purpose in creating Mesmerism Collective was to cultivate an eclectic community, plan / promote dope events, & bridge the gap between healing & "the Arts". Though we have always been involved in the esoteric, the metaphysical, & "the Arts", we began officially in 2018 by putting together shows with our in-house acts Asklepius & Tangle Parade, filling the bills with other like-sounding bands that matched our aesthetic. At first, it was kind of just a fun thing to do in our free time, a hobby, but people started to take notice; they were interested in our events & wanted to be a part of the vibe. So we humbly accepted, & this whole Mesmerism thing took a life of it's own.
In January of 2019, our fellow "mesmerizer" The Bedroom Light Show asked us if we wanted to throw a two-day event at Tangent Gallery as the originally scheduled event had to back out. We only had a few weeks to make it happen, but we said: "Fuck it! Let's do this". I am a firm believer that when life provides you with an opportunity, you take that gift & make the most out of it. We decided to do a two-day mini music festival; we wanted our event to represent both the rock & electronic elements of the Detroit music scene. To do this, we decided Friday would be dedicated to bands, Saturday would be dedicated to DJ's, & both nights would have a diverse array of vendors slangin' their art. We called the event The Sonic Blizzard! Once all the details were finalized, we reached out to potential performers to get the bills solidified.
We, of course, had to include our two in-house bands, Asklepius & Tangle Parade, but we also wanted to reach out to the greater community. We ended up with the following lineup for Friday night: Asklepius, Zilched, Space Junkie, Tangle Parade, & Rellimfarg--an interesting mix of sounds indeed. Then, we called upon our homies in Choose Better Friends & PITS to fill out the bill for Saturday night. We ended up with John Joseph, Ryan McCray, DJ Phil Minnick, Shaun Alan, Jessica Peacock, & PETTYCASH on the 1's & 2's. Finally, we recruited the one & only zjump to share light duties with The Bedroom Light Show. Now with the difficult part out of the way, all we had to do was promote the event & hope for the best. Luckily, we got some love from Detroit Metro Times & Jeff Milo on Culture Shift to help build the hype! You can peep those at the following links:
The Sonic Blizzard turned out to be a success! Despite the limited time, we pulled it together to create something truly special. On Friday night, nearly 100 people were in attendance while Saturday drew a little over 50--not bad for our first event of this size. We were elated to feel the love & support of our community; we had no idea what to expect. It galvanized us to pursue this Mesmerism endeavor as a tangible thing. If would could do this on such short notice, what could we collectively accomplish with the proper time & resources? The ideas started flowing. But one thing was for certain: we had to do this event again.
So here we are, presenting to you Sonic Blizzard 2: 2020 Vizionz! This year is shaping up to be an even better event though we have made one significant change: this year Sonic Blizzard will only be one night. Maybe in the future, we can go back to the two-night affair, but we wanted to ensure this 2020 celebration was an absolute banger! We have some incredible vendors; The Bedroom Light Show will be joining us once again to shine some wintry light; & we have a stellar lineup that is sure to melt your winter woes. This year we will be bringing the following acts to the Tangent stage: sham Kurd (of Berlin), Satomi the Red Fox, Violet Sol, Cye Pie & Ya Homies, Asklepius (once again!), & a mystery DJ to end the night on a groove. We are ecstatic for this event, & to get you in the mood, we have added some photos from last year (shout out to James Chung for the professional shots!). We hope to see all your beautiful faces in attendance this Friday.
With Jubilation & Undying Radiance,
Justin Groppuso-Cook
aka Sunni Mani
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