Snowta 2025

Holy shit. What else can I say? Tipper never disappoints, but I saw many people saying Tipper’s sets would essentially be the same as night one and night three from Tippsgiving, which is an insane assumption to make if you know anything about Tipper. Still, they couldn't have been more wrong. Neither set was confirmed on what type they would be, but looking at the support led most of us to believe it would be Uptempo on Friday and Downtempo on Saturday. 

While Friday was definitely Uptempo—the man went all gas, no breaks from start to finish—it quickly became apparent that we’d be getting a Journey set for Saturday. That was the theme for the whole night; everyone had a Journey-style set for Saturday. And as spectacular as Friday’s set was, it was blown completely out of the water by Saturday’s performance. 

(Fuckin’ Haole Rot!?!?!)

Tipper’s sets were the best of the weekend, but everyone put on a stellar show. My friends and I decided to rate the sets as follows:

1.) Tipper (Saturday Journey)

2.) Tipper (Friday Uptempo) 

3.) Smigonaut 

4.) Chez (w/ pheel.) (3 & 4 are interchangeable; both were incredible)

5.) Restraint

6.) Fuggem

7.) Mickman

8.) Faceplant

9.) Eastwood Red

10.) Keota

11.) Ekorce

12.) Shwamp

None of these sets were bad by any means, and many of them are really interchangeable or even tied, but we challenged ourselves to make our definitive list, and this is it. 

The Armory is also such a cool fucking venue. It’s a massive old National Guard armory that was converted to an event center and used to be the home of the Lakers when they were still in Minnesota. I know Tipper won't likely play there again, I'd love to go down to catch some other artists there sometime in the future. 

Also I can't forget to mention the pre-party show at the Ballentine VFW hall. Vinja was an absolute madman out there and those Voids were shaking me to my core. And extra props to Lone Drum for holding down a fat K.L.O. set by himself. (sending love for Mike Wallis)

All in all it was another legendary weekend thanks to Dave Tipper. His music has made such an insane impact on my life and while I'm gutted that his final show is right around the corner, I'm so happy that he finally gets to enjoy the fruits of his labor. The hype for The Gorge is getting insane.

I met a lot of really cool people and heard some of the best experimental bass music coming out today on a damn fine sound system. Does it really get any better than that?