The weather outside in Tacoma, WA, was consistently gloomy, with temperatures in the 30-40 range and either wind or rain alongside it all weekend long. However, the temperature inside the Tacoma Dome was the exact opposite.
Headbangers giving 110% energy for 3 consecutive days certainly created a heat that easily counteracted the miserable weather outside. After all, with the show being put on in front of them, how could you not want to give everything you’ve got?
No matter how many times you see Excision in your life, he is going to be sure to put on a hell of a show for you each time. For Thunderdome, it becomes a spectacle you, and certainly I, struggle to put into words.
Overall, despite long entry lines into the Dome that were to be expected, the event as a whole was ran quite smoothly with minimal major issues. Having actual bathrooms over port-a-potties was a nice plus. There were also 4 well-located water stations that made it easy to leave the crowd, fill up your water, and seamlessly find your totem or friends again.
Merch at every Excision festival is usually an ordeal, but Thunderdome merch had some people waiting 2-3 hours for their exclusive gear. However, you could fully hear the music going on behind you, making the wait a bit more bearable.
A couple of other noteworthy tidbits; food was surprisingly cheap inside the venue, with a chicken tender basket, for example, costing $10 compared to the $18 it costs at Lost Lands. That is a big deal when you have a sea of inebriated people all in one place.
Parking was its standard $20 outside of a venue like the Tacoma Dome, but if you showed up early, you were rewarded with a good spot in close proximity to the Dome. This allowed for very easy entry and exit outside of a place where Uber is virtually nonexistent after the show.
Nonstop and unrelenting energy all weekend, combined with the most ridiculous production you’ve ever seen, really makes Thunderdome one of the more memorable festival experiences you could have in the United States. As long as you’re into bass music, of course.
Between Thunderdome and Bass Canyon, the PNW has become a big hotspot for dubstep over the last 5 years. This was the first year that Thunderdome became a 3-day event, and I don’t think anyone complained about that. Maybe their bodies did, but the people did not. It provided us with a couple of amazing B2B sets, one of them being the first ever Excision Detox b2b Liquid Stranger set.
This is absolutely an event I’d recommend to experience at least once, if you’re up for all that heavy bass. It will definitely change your perspective on indoor events in the future, and the possibilities that they’re capable of. The high bar that Excision has set for production and putting on a show will hopefully continue to spread throughout the rave world in years to come.
