Was down in SF for gramma’s big 80th birthday fest, so Cryptic, Matthew and I hit up the Green Velvet / Designer Drugs show at Mezzanine. Overcame a Dutch Goose double cheeseburger and arriving to a still pretty sparse dancefloor, and by the end of the night I was fist-pumping and singing along to the GV classics. Very fun show.
I was curious to see Designer Drugs given their blogosphere success over the past few years, not exactly sure if it would be live or a DJ set that consisted of a lot of their productions. It was latter, not superbly mixed (only quick cuts) but he did the job. Got a meandering audience pumped and primed for the headliner, and was fun to hear the electro bangers from my iTunes actually getting played out. Riverside is blowing up!!
To be honest, I didn’t know exactly what to expect from Green Velvet. I knew I had maximum respect since he was listed in Daft Punk’s Teachers, and I have liked all his hits. And his set turned out to be just as I had been imagining — very funky tech house, bordering on techno but I definitely felt it in my hips. And when he flipped his headphones around and started singing, that was epic. Extra points: rocking the sunglasses the entire set in a dark club!
The evening was a fun juxtaposition of old and new for me. Designer Drugs are very much what’s current; Green Velvet has been rocking his sound for a long time. It was refreshing to set aside the latest-and-greatest pursuit for the night, as well as remember back to the 227 glory days when sets like that were standard issue. I feel like expectations have been hard to meet lately, but this show danced around that. Just a fun-ass time, no more no less.
The man responsible for Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough and the moonwalk has been dead for quite some time now as far as I’m concerned, but now he’s actually gone. RIP — your impact was mighty, no matter how freakish the aftermath may have become.
courtesy of underwoodpix.com
Couldn’t quite decide which direction to go, so here are both of the evening’s recordings — an indie one and a clubby one. Was running a bit blind, having just tagged a bunch of new tracks this week. Like making a christmas wish list and then looking in the toy store window and forgetting all about it…
Ok, enough blabber. Here they are.
Track Listing:
Hot Chip - Over and Over (Maurice Fulton Remix)
1gnition - Secret Sunday Lover (Greg Wilson Edit)
Indeep - Last Night a DJ Saved My Life
Gonzales - Let’s Ride (U-GO-B’s Disco Dj Friendly Edit)
Lenka - Trouble is a Friend (Eli Escobar Mix)
Lullatone - Hello Kitty Makes A Band
The Units - High Pressure Days (Headman Rework)
Metric - Help Im Alive (The Twelves Remix)
Little Boots - New In Town (Fred Falke Remix)
Steve Kotey & Max Essa - 1974
Curses! - The Deep End (Holy Ghost! Remix)
Teenager - Alone Again feat. Ladyhawke
Track Listing:
Black Eyed Peas - Boom Boom Pow (Excel Loves Fergie Edit)
Bangers & Cash - B.O.O.T.A.Y. (Krames Edit)
Mujava - Township Funk (DJ Rob 3 remix)
N.W.A. - Something 2 Dance 2
Aquasky - Have A Good Time feat. Acafool (The Count & Sinden Remix)
EPMD - Run It (Sinden Remix)
MSTRKRFT - Bounce feat. NORE (A-Trak Remix)
Chelley vs. Mr Oizo - I Took The Night (DJ Ayres Flatbeat Mix)
Bonde Do Role - Gasolina (Fake Blood Mix)
N.A.S.A. - Money (The Count Of Monte Cristal ‘Dungeon’ Remix)
Edu K - Sexomatic (Chesus and Rodski Refix)
DJ Ayres - Broke Ass Home
Daft Punk - Make Love (Chew Fu and Substantial Small Room Sax Fix)
Haven’t had time or, frankly, been motivated to write about recent shows, but let me start by saying, DAMN that was fun. All the fun of a live band, and that band is playing house music. Plus, Nectar is very small — this meant I had more hipster B.O. to deal with, but it reminded me of seeing Calvin Harris at the little Echo a few years ago.
The energy was amazing — drummer wailing away, Juan (is his name actually Juan?) banging on different percussion implements and even some sort of pitchfork thing that I couldn’t even figure out. All I know, he would wave one hand over it like a band leader while the other vibrato’d like a cellist. It was hot. The annoying asian chick from the Soulwax documentary even got less annoying. Every song was good fun, and they finished up the set with Happy House, naturally. Except it was an epic 20-minute hyperdrive version of it that just wouldn’t end. This also came just after the hipster in front of me left, whose only dance move the entire set had been to elbow my drink like Don Flamenco from Tyson’s Punch-Out, so needless to say I was very excited.
Another thought I had been stewing on since we saw The Twelves back in March was the “live” versus “DJ set” comparison. Everything is steering more toward production, but I have to say, I was underwhelmed by The Twelves’ performance. I love all their tracks, but two dudes sitting behind a laptop for an hour just didn’t keep me on the edge of my seat. With a DJ set, I don’t know what’s going to come next. A master could throw anything at me. Now, after seeing Prodigy and TJM, it was interesting to observe the differences between a live act and an “Ableton Live” act. (You’re not as cool as you think you are, Deadmau5).
I still think a DJ can generate just as much an energy as a band; to a certain extent, just rocking out on stage gets the ball rolling. Personally, I want to work Ableton into the DJ arsenal to expand beyond playing one track after the next, no matter how seamless the transitions are. But dude behind a laptop undertaking minimal cueing on a pre-planned Ableton set is hardly a “live” show just because one is not using decks.
And with that, OoC got out his little rant AND a concert review in one post. Do yourself a favor and listen to Happy House again. So good.