After a meteoric rise through bass music, the trio is turning its first Red Rocks headline into an immersive trip inside a prehistoric volcano.
The last few years of Levity’s career have moved quickly enough that even the three friends at the center of it are still trying to process what has happened.
What began with a viral Electric Forest moment has grown into sold-out headline shows, major festival appearances and a rapidly expanding community surrounding John Hauldren, PJ Carberry and Josh Tarum. On October 2, that trajectory reaches its biggest milestone yet when Levity headlines Red Rocks Amphitheatre for the first time.
“A lot of the last few years has felt like it’s all just been a dream someone’s going to wake us up from,” the trio tells Rooster. “But the idea of us actually headlining Red Rocks might be the craziest one to take in yet.”
Headlining Red Rocks also gives Levity something equally important: time. After years of touring, the trio has learned that an hour can showcase their music, but a true Levity experience requires more room for heavy bass, emotional releases, unreleased IDs, deeper cuts and the shifts in energy that have come to define their shows.
That philosophy has increasingly extended into production, with visuals, lasers, sound design and stage concepts becoming part of the storytelling. Red Rocks will become their most ambitious example yet with Levi-Rocks: The Volcano, Bassuvius Awakens, a story-driven production transporting the audience into a prehistoric world centered around an erupting volcano.
Music, visuals, lasers and pyro will combine into what the trio describes as a “hyperreal experience.” The concept also connects their previous Lasership production with their next major idea, Octobot, as Levity begins building a larger creative world around its music.
We caught up with Levity ahead of their first Red Rocks headline to talk about reaching the iconic venue, discovering what defines a true Levity show and bringing The Volcano to life. Check out our conversation below!
You’ve played Red Rocks in different capacities before, but this time every person in the crowd is there for a Levity show. How does that change the way you’re approaching the night?
Every time we open a show, we like to keep things fun, go through ebbs and flows of energy and focus a lot on the flow, but you can only do so much with one hour. What we and our fans have learned is that a true Levity show needs 80-100+ minutes to really create what we want people to experience.
We get to turn those ebbs and flows into moments and story points, go into deeper cuts and IDs we know our fans specifically will appreciate. We keep the same fun, energetic vibe, but get to have really special and longer moments built in that we think define a true Levity set.
You’ve teased Levi-Rocks: The Volcano, Bassuvius Awakens as a story-driven production. Where did that concept come from, and what kind of experience are you hoping to create?
We want to transport people to the past, long before humans existed, and make it feel like we’re all experiencing this crazy show in front of a volcano. We have a little story built in to really set the scene, and it all ties in with our last tour, Lasership, and the next big production, Octobot.
We found a huge love and passion for creating productions that feel like something that exists in life that we wouldn’t be able to really experience. We translate that over to actual production and get to create this hyperreal experience where we can curate the music, visuals, lasers and, in this case, pyro all together.
Your rise has happened incredibly fast, from viral festival moments to sold-out headline shows and now Red Rocks. Through all of that momentum, how have the three of you stayed grounded while continuing to push each other creatively?
Having each other grounds us the most. We’re all highly critical of ourselves and strive for perfection, which is impossible, so we’re constantly humbling ourselves every day.
It helps having three people because we’re always giving each other pep talks and are straight up with each other, which helps us constantly grow as artists. We’re constantly bouncing ideas off each other and are almost always in sync with our goals and self-critiques. It feels like we’re always improving and evolving as artists together.
