Mersiv brings his bass to KEMBA Live! in February

The bass producer, with a new album, NOSTALGIA, announced for this fall, plays Columbus on Fri, Feb 12, with YDG and Seth David.

February in Columbus is the stretch of winter when people need a reason to leave the house. Mersiv just gave the city's bass heads one. Mersiv plays KEMBA Live! on Fri, Feb 12, 2027, with YDG and Seth David. Doors and show are both listed at 7 p.m., and tickets are on sale through AXS. The date was announced Oct 28.

That's more than three months out, which is exactly why it's worth paying attention now. Big-room bass shows in the Arena District tend to reward the people who commit early, and a Friday in mid-February — the weekend of Valentine's Day — is a date plenty of people will be making plans around.

If you've been to a bass show anywhere in the Midwest lately, you've probably heard Mersiv, even if you couldn't name the track. EDM Identity calls him an "eclectic bass producer," and that's the right word: his sound pulls from heavy low end, hip-hop swagger and the weirder corners of the genre without settling into any one lane. His management, Red Light Management, traces his album run back to *Pretty Dark Loud* on MorFlo Records, and This Song Is Sick called that record "soul-shaking." He followed it with *Out Of Bounds* in 2023, plus a string of collaborative EPs with producers like Smoakland and Fryar.

The bigger news is what's coming next. In late August, EDM Identity reported that Mersiv is set to release NOSTALGIA, his fifth studio album, this fall, led by the single "Kickback." A September EDM.com feature pointed to that album and a fourth Red Rocks headline on the horizon. By February, Columbus should be hearing those new songs in a room built for them, with the album's tour cycle in full swing.

YDG and Seth David round out the bill. With doors and show both at 7 p.m., the openers will be playing as people arrive, so if you want to catch their full sets, don't plan on a long dinner downtown first.

KEMBA Live! is a fitting room for this. It's one of the city's main stops for touring acts too big for a club but not built for an arena, and on a February night the show moves indoors, where a bass rig has walls to push against. It's also an easy night out: the Arena District is full of places to eat and drink before doors, and getting home afterward is simpler than from most big venues in the state.

What to know: tickets are on AXS now, doors are at 7 p.m., and the bill is three deep. If you're bringing a group, buy together so you're not split up at the door.

Winter in Ohio is long. A night of loud, strange, joyful bass in the middle of it isn't a bad way to break it up.

Sources: EDM Identity: Mersiv - Kickback (NOSTALGIA lead single) (edmidentity.com); EDM.com: Mersiv's vision for the future of bass music (edm.com); Red Light Management: Mersiv (redlightmanagement.com); This Song Is Sick: Mersiv unleashes soul-shaking album Pretty Dark Loud (thissongissick.com); EDM Identity: Mersiv - Out Of Bounds (edmidentity.com); EDM Identity: Mersiv & Smoakland - What You Want EP (edmidentity.com); EDM Identity: Mersiv & Fryar - Paradise EP (edmidentity.com); AXS: Mersiv at KEMBA Live! (axs.com); JamBase: Mersiv at KEMBA Live! (jambase.com)