The kids aren’t alright. A sold-out techno-house shake-up is nothing to take lightly, especially one housed in such a fine place as the Henry Fonda theatre. You can imagine my frustration when, after finding the last damn parking lot willing to let me park in the overgrown field behind their property in exchange for fifteen dollars, I discovered that a large portion of the crowd was barely old enough to drive. Hey, I’m not naïve. I know that was exactly how I was at that age and that it’s great that kids see good music, I just want them to do it far far away from me. And to chill the fuck out. Seriously kids, I understand you’re excited to be out past curfew in the most expensive and stylish clothes your parents could afford for you, but that doesn’t mean you should go around soliciting high fives from strangers. It took at least two overpriced shots of whiskey to clear my head of that sick sense of displacement, and I put my journo game face on.
The world of electronic music, specifically that which is made for dancing purposes, is exploding right now. Thanks to the digital revolution, almost anybody can create and promote a mix from home (no promises on the quality however), and quite a few people are. In the world of music blogs, dance tracks and remixes are omnipresent. And for good reason. Remixes sit centrally in the increasingly ambiguous world of internet piracy, and allow a sort of communal experience between a remixer and their subject wherein the remixer can express themselves against a track that may already be popular (and thus more likely to be listened to by blog surfers). If this all sounds ridiculously complicated, don’t worry. All you need to know is that electronic dance music, in all of its increasing varieties, has seen a huge re-resurgence in 2008, and it’s only going to get exponentially bigger. And the three artists at the Henry Fonda gig will be leading the way.
First on the docket were LA Riots, an electro-centric duo and hometown favorites. There was no opening act hesitation here, no sense of saving the good stuff for the headliner. LA Riots were incendiary, and the crowd responded eagerly. Their talent at making beats is obvious, but their shrewdly chosen subject matter could not be more integral to their resonance with audiences. These guys were the first to make any waves with a Justice remix of a song other than “D.A.N.C.E.,” and the thousands of summer playlists rewarded their innovation with plenty of promotion. For further proof of their future dominance, I command you to listen to their new Hot Chip remix with Villains. Shit goes off, yo.
I’d been looking forward to seeing Z-Trip since listening to his All-Pro soundtrack and specifically his “Tom Sawyer” remix. Anyone who can make Rush work, and work well, in a club setting should get a congressional medal. A drum kit sat center stage ominously, and I could hear mutterings in the crowd about the live drum performance. Z-Trip, whose mother likely just calls him Zach, is known as a prodigious creator and collaborator, working with a massive stable of artists including Rakim and Chuck D and contributing tracks to video game and film soundtracks in addition to his stunning discography of mixtapes.
“A lot of people asked me why I’m doing a show with MSTRKRFT, because we do different styles. I’m like, ‘That’s the point.’” Z-Trip is a turntablist at heart, and his scratching ability is indisputably great. The turntables however, are just a red herring designed to steer the eye away from the incredibly urgent beats that Z-Trip leaves underneath his scratch athletics (scratch-letics?). And as soon as that particular combo began to feel routine, out marched the drummer. I don’t know quite how to describe the impact that the live drums had on the crowd. It was a sort of stirring power, and the crowds swelled like tidal waves lashing against a floodlit shore. The drummer wasn’t particularly virtuosic, but the simple interaction of a musician and an audience charged the air with a static-electric excitement that released itself on the crowd with a furiously delivered “Tom Sawyer.”
The crowd seemed completely tapped and in need of at least a half hour’s rest to recharge for MSTRKRFT. Of course, this is a DJ show, so there was about 10 minutes’ silence to put up a big hockey mask decoration and unveil the equipment and we were back into it again. The whole room began to grow swampy in the thick masses of dancing bodies, and the smoke machines chugging onstage did their best to make it worse. Somehow a fistfight breaks out next to me. I am utterly confused. At this point, I’ve become an animal, flailing and clawing to the beat as though my life depended on it. There is nothing rational about this transformation. I couldn’t tell you what songs were played, and I can only assume that the two men supplying the music were in fact Jesse F. Keeler and Alex Puodziukas and not some dangerous impostors whipping up such a stereo frenzy. Thankfully, the set ends at some point. My hands begin to feel like hands again, and my spine stops pulsing with the kick drum. The crowd filters out to its various afterparties, and I lurch off to my ravine parking spot. Although there’s no hope of accurately accounting that strange electronica-induced phenomenon, perhaps one day I can recreate it.
More on MSTRKRFT here: www.myspace.com/mstrkrft
More on Z-Trip here: www.myspace.com/djztrip
More on LA Riots here: www.myspace.com/lariotsofficial
Download – "D.A.N.C.E." MSTRKRFT remix – [mp3]
