Live Shows: Bassvictim | Los Angeles, CA

The White Flag Tour ’26 kept its momentum at maximum for stop #2. Headlining The Novo in Downtown LA on September 23rd, 2026, was Bassvictim, an unexpected friendship between two classmates that—within the span of a few years—turned into a successful electronic music duo. The present voice in their music is that of Polish singer/songwriter Maria Manow and the mind behind the beats is New York’s Ike Clateman. Their fans have definitely been enjoying themselves this year, from their single Year of the Dragon, which was released on March 4th, to their last album titled “?” that followed two days later, all the way to their latest single, Jagódki (Blueberries) which was released on September 4th, as well as two other singles that dropped between that time period. 2026 seems to have been very kind to the two. Music has a history of notable vocalist/producer duos such as Gang Starr, Madvillain, Eurythmics, and Phantogram. With 750K monthly listeners on Spotify, Bassvictim is on track to becoming the next big one. The night of Wednesday the 23rd was packed with exceptional music from five different acts and a crowd with the energy of the Sun, let’s get right into it.

Due to Downtown Los Angeles’ scarce availability of parking, I unfortunately only caught the first act in their final song. California/Phoenix duo Corridos Ketamina took the stage first that night, giving the audience a blend of corridos, hip hop, and alternative rock.

Second up was seven-member screamo collective Dead Butterflies coming out of Forth Worth, Texas. This emerging band landed themselves a spot on Spotify’s 2026 Fresh Finds and has accumulated 497K monthly listeners on the platform, with embers, the closing track off their 2024 EP that feeling in your chest at nine million streams. This was my first time hearing about Dead Butterflies, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Bands rarely have more than four members, so their sound could have been anything and I was absolutely blown away by their performance. Their lead singer, Micah, did not hold back—flooring the gas on his vocal chords and moving around onstage at a pace that made it almost impossible to focus my camera. Another standout performance was by Stella, who alternated between vocals and playing trombone.


“THIS IS THE PART WHERE WE DANCE!”
- Micah, to the crowd.


The hands of every attendee went up and met each other on every beat. Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap, clap. Dead Butterflies knows how to get a crowd to push each other around, of course, what would a screamo concert be without a little bit of moshing? But they know how to get people moving rhythmically too.


“THIS SONG IS CALLED EMBERS”
- Micah, to the crowd once more.


To close out the band’s time at The Novo, Micah announced their final song which was met with an uproar in the room indicating that many of those who bought tickets were there to see them. Being second act of the night, Dead Butterflies gave the fans a huge boost of energy and set the tone for what would ensue.

Act #3 was a complete switch in genres, yet the energy stayed high. Bridgeport, Connecticut’s Christ Dillinger brought an amazingly clever and creative blend of hip hop, meme rap, and house music. Simply put, this set was fun! Not only did Dillinger get everyone moving, but he also put on an exceptional performance. Rappers have a reputation of just playing their songs on concert speakers and either only doing ad-libs or just dancing. There’s no nice way to say this, I hate when they do that. Christ Dillinger held the mic and rapped every word during his performance, that’s honorable.


“LET ME SEE IT! OPEN THAT SH*T UP!”
- Dillinger, encouraging some mosh action once the beat dropped.


One of the most exciting parts of a concert is crowd engagement. “I need to make sure y’all are ready for Bassvictim,” he affirmed. During his rendition of Drunk af (which I’ve listened to at least 30 times since that night), Dillinger kept the party going by taking a stroll into the crowd and jumping with the rest of the audience while keeping his mic in his hand. “Now I feel it, y’all are ready for Bassvictim,” said the man of the hour once the crowd proved that they were definitely ready.

“Are y’all having fun?” Dillinger asked the crowd, which was met with cheers, of course. “Man, I don’t even want to rap anymore!” See? He really did put his all into it. After a few more songs, Christ Dillinger closed out with a very short and straight-to-the-point statement. That being “This is my computer,” raising his laptop in the air like he just did not care, “All my songs are on this computer. Bye!” Later, Christ! Thanks for the fun show!

“MY NAME IS THOOM.”
- A short and simple introduction from our last opener.


Next to take the stage was Thoom, an experimental alt-pop singer and producer from Beirut, Lebanon who was joined by two backup dancers that did both shared and separate routines with her. Her latest mixtape, Everyday, Everything Is At Stake, was released earlier this year and met with praise on social media from Clairo and Addison Rae. I always look forward to photographing concerts, but for this one I was super stoked for because I discovered her song December Forever last summer and had it on repeat for a few months after.

While she performed, she had on these really cool gloves with green lights that pointed out of the knuckles. I believe that it’s always important, especially as an artist, to have strong pride in where you’re from. Thoom did just that, with her lyrics alternating between English and Arabic. I’m not sure about you guys, but whenever I go to a concert (just to watch, not shoot), it’s really easy for me to lose my energy after more than two openers. I start thinking Alright, this is cool. But let’s get to who I came here for. I think I was the only person in the room who felt that way since Thoom still had the room jumping, dancing, and singing along to her songs. She closed her set out with the song I was hoping for, December Forever, with her background dancers joining her and exited the stage with a nice and simple “Thank you.”

The lights went out, cheers filled up the room, white flashing lights went on, then out came our final act of the night. No introduction, straight to it—the voice of the crowd mixed with Maria Manow’s. While Ike Clateman held a Batman-like pose squatting on the table of his DJ booth, Maria moved rapidly around the stage. Front, back, left, right, it was impossible to keep up with my camera especially with the flashing lights. But that’s a good thing because it’s about the audience, not the photographers. I was lucky enough to capture expressions of how much it meant to attendees. Before and after I started photographing them, I had been to a lot of concerts, my first being when I was fourteen. Never in my nine years of attending live music have I ever been to a show that was so wild that I could literally feel the floor shaking. Bassvictim definitely knows how to put on a show, Manow created more excitement by walking through the crowd and singing, even wearing a fan’s hat for a picture. However, I think some audience members got a little too excited.


“YOU GUYS NEED TO CHILL OUT. I’M COMING THERE TO GIVE YOU GUYS MY HAND, BUT DON’T GRAB MY HAND SO F*CKING HARD!”
- Maria Manow of Bassvictim, letting fans know they need to relax.

“I’m a nice person, but some things just need to be said,” Manow announced. The crowd responded in cheers of support, and the show went on. I had never heard of Bassvictim before receiving my invite to shoot, so I definitely discovered some good music that night. My favorite song they performed was L-ON-D-ON. The two of them embraced with Manow’s hand on Clateman’s back as they walked offstage without saying anything and nobody wanted the show to end, the room let them know with a collective “One more! One more! One more!” and guess what happened? They got what they were asking for. What’s funny is the final song Bassvicitm performed was actually called Final Song. Everyone was so into it, with the entire venue making the floor shake one last time and singing “Please don’t, please don’t go away!” along with Manow. As the two of them walked off stage, for real this time, Manow walked backwards to take one last look at the crowd and Clateman pointed up while running off. Fans repeatedly yelled “I LOVE YOU!” as the lights came back on.

The White Flag Tour ’26 is off to one hell of a start. Be sure to catch Bassvictim with Thoom and other special guests in a city near you until October 31st.