Mersiv brings "Pretty Dark Loud" bass to a Gun Lake pool party

The Denver bass producer plays Gun Lake Casino in Wayland this Saturday, November 14, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $33.

It's mid-November in West Michigan, and this Saturday's bass show is a pool party. Mersiv plays Gun Lake Casino in Wayland on Saturday, November 14. The show starts at 8 p.m., and tickets are $33 through Etix. The ticket listing calls it the Mersiv Pool Party, at the resort's Wawyé Oasis.

The date was announced October 28, so there's under three weeks between announcement and show. For Grand Rapids bass fans, that means deciding this week.

Mersiv is Anderson Benoit Gallegos, a DJ and producer who grew up in Shreveport, Louisiana, and moved to Colorado in his twenties with very little money, according to 303 Magazine. He is now based in Denver. His sound has a name: "Pretty Dark Loud," a style he has been building since 2015 and the title of his debut album. The music is what's called freeform bass, a term he has written about himself in Magnetic Magazine: heavy, but with room for melody and atmosphere.

His breakout, per 303 Magazine, came at Electric Forest in 2018, where he played multiple sets. That's the festival in Rothbury, a short drive north of here, so plenty of West Michigan fans have probably seen him already. He runs his own label, MorFlo Records, and has released music on Liquid Stranger's WAKAAN label, per his management, Red Light Management, which also lists 2026 festival dates including North Coast and Bass Canyon.

Freeform bass, an indoor pool, and a Saturday in November.

The setting is the unusual part. Casino shows around here usually mean a seated showroom. This one is billed as a pool party, so Mersiv's mix of pretty and loud is playing to a crowd in swimsuits, not in a field or a warehouse. For a producer whose sets are built around flow, a room full of people half in the water might work better than you'd expect.

A few notes. It's a casino, so check the age policy on the ticket page before you buy. If you're coming from Grand Rapids, it's a Saturday-night drive down to Wayland, so pick a driver. And bring a towel.

At $33 for a festival-tier bass act in a pool, it's one of the more unusual shows of the month around here.

Sources: The Pretty, Dark and Loud Journey of Mersiv (303 Magazine) (303magazine.com); What is freeform bass music? (Magnetic Magazine) (magneticmag.com); Mersiv (Red Light Management) (redlightmanagement.com); Gun Lake Casino Resort (Experience Grand Rapids) (web.grandrapids.org); Mersiv Pool Party tickets (Etix) (etix.prf.hn)