Fierce Panda signed Glaswegians Shitdisco have created a guest podcast especially/exclusively for Not on the Guest List that is the shizz. They turned this around in a day. . . while on tour!
Former tourmates to Klaxons in fall and the Rapture in March, they have enough tour dates to make clear their intent to convert the masses. However they justhad to cancel the remaining dates of their UK tour due to illness.
They are apparently still open to playing house parties anywhere and everywhere, so get making the invites. Then you can rewrite 'Daft Punk's Playing at My House' to instead be about Shitdisco, or maybe not. . . Either way-you've got a good party soundtrack in them and/or in their eight track podcast, so get to it. . .
As above, so below - and Portland was a different reflection of the high Klaxons' achieved with their Seattle show. Before the show, Simon admitted he was feeling a bit dead as he ordered a diet coke for himself and the requested tequila for me. It showed on stage, and even off. They weren't anywhere near as visible mingling in the crowd as they were in Seattle. In fact, they were pretty much invisible until they took to the stage after yet another eccentric show from Fist Fite - they're second ever, and first in their hometown.
Jonnie's roommates formed the majority of the audience that was situated directly in front of the stage and when she asked for a cigarette, one very vocal one threw one at her with all his might as another audience member (and possibly another roommate) politely handed one up to her. My cries for 'Terminator' went unanswered, but they did play their interlude 'High Five Team/High Five Team-O' directly upon my shout for it. I'm almost scared of my level of fangirl-dom for them.
I think why Klaxons came off as a bit moody when they took to the Dante's stage was that they were put off by the fact that much of the audience remained sitting through out their set. And it'd be different if it was balcony seating, but it was right on the floor, right in front of the stage. Of course the US isn't going to have the mob-mentality of their shows in the UK and Europe, but still. . . enthusiasm enough to stand would have gone a long way. . .
They played the exact same set as Seattle in terms of setlist. Marisa's favorite was 'Golden Skans', which she wasn't expecting to translate as well live as it did and I felt 'As Above, So Below' was the best and had possibly the most dancable beat in terms of their songs' live recreations. They didn't have the same amount of contact with each other on stage in comparison to Seattle. I really think the reason for the difference in energy is that it was much easier to feed off of the frenzied energy of Seattle's crowd. They played with the house lights on, so everyone could be seen, and the audience was absolutely insane. Portland was absolutely subdued (aside from two couples who acted as if Dante's was their bedroom) and very dark in terms of venue and stage lighting.
They still put on a great show.
And still repeated that they were from London multiple times through out their set :)
The highlight of their set was undoubtedly when Fist Fite's Jonnie's energy spilled onto stage, in the form of her jumping on, doing stationary running for a few beats, and then playfully assaulting (:D) by means of tickling and biting each member as they ended their set.
Afterwards, Jamie was DJing at Rotture with DJ Joee Irwin. Marisa and I went to the Tube first
(spy one of the Candy Cane Shivs of Reverse Dotty getting down in the crowd in his striped top)
and got down to DJ Linoleum as she played some Daft Punk and Cassie, then made our way over to Rotture around 12:30-ish. It was pretty dead. It was moved from the downstairs portion known as Branx since a sub had blown the night before. It was SO dark upstairs.
This is where I become ashamed.
I decided to leave.
At the door DJ Joee Irwin wondered how I could leave - it was free! I was tired though. Then, this is where I don't even want to continue typing my future regret, he noted that Junior Boys would also be playing a set. And I still left!
This is the type of night I want to move to Berlin for, but really the atmosphere was so lacking and that's a big part of the experience. Maybe twenty people were sitting at tables, no one dancing, house music overhead and I just could not suspend my disbelief long enough to believe that this would turn into an unmissable party that would somehow keep me awake, involved (as Marisa had to leave), and be worth a 20 dollar cab fare home that I just barely had. I heard second hand that the last three Junior Boys songs killed. . .
➔ Fresh off opening for Klaxons for their first ever shows, Fist Fite will be joining Klaxons on their UK headline tour later this year!!!!!! Brooklyn's Shy Child are along for Klaxons' UK May ride.
➔ Got a message from Nathan aka Gossip's Brace Paine. Guess what they did in LA? Aside from Beth hanging out with Kate Moss, they had a meeting with RICK RUBIN! Speechless! He said it was surreal. I am in love with Rick Rubin! He slept with his parents in their bed until age 18 and what he did with Def Jam in his NYU dorm room is what made me want to go to NYU (though I eventually never even applied)
➔ Men's Journal magazine contacted me last week about Portland music photography as their summer issue is a music issue and they're doing a feature on the Portland music scene! I sent mine over of Quasi, Hey Lover, the Shins, Viva Voce, Gossip, Y.A.C.H.T., Panther, and the Thermals (all linking is to my photos of each act on flickr). I think they're passing on my photos, but it's still pretty sick that Portland music is drawing this attention!
➔ Yacht has his CD release party next Saturday at OMSI on May 5th 2007. Doors at 8:30, show at 9pm. GO if you live in Portland and are in town! Adrian Orange who went to my middle school (and high school for a portion of freshman year) is playing as is E*Rock and of course the man of the evening is doing a set as well. A concert at OMSI! Too cool!
Tix are available at Jackpot Records, but haven't appeared yet online on Brown Paper Tickets
Here's a cool video Y.A.C.H.T. made of Portland bands at this year's SXSW:
Fist Fite were up first at Crocodile Cafe in Seattle. On the promoter's (Monqui) website, it always compares it's musical acts to acts the site's readers would be more familiar with. For Klaxons it was: "Sounds like Test Icicles." I love how they picked a more obscure act to compare them to. In reality, Fist Fite are closer to Test Icicles' crown. They are the sound of spazz-core with electro undertones - they don't give a shit - it's all about getting through their set however possible - whatever that entails and last night, it brought about a lot of fun. They don't take themselves seriously at all, which I learned from TI is the most important thing possible.
They're do it yourself-ers, much in the vain of TI. They made their own shirts the night prior with ink pens to sell. They made CDRs - then on stage said it was actually the music of their former band on the discs -a band that sounds nothing like what they sound like as a duo, but that's all they had.
In the middle of one song, lead singer Jonnie decided she no longer wanted to play the tune, so they stopped.
Towards the end - two songs away from the close of their short set it didn't look as if she'd make it through, what with her hand on her forehead and deep breathing.
"Are you going to be okay?" a teen shouted from the audience.
"You know what, I could really use some glitter right now."
And glitter she got. An over-enthusiastic boy reached out to pass her some and she demanded that he join her onstage and put it on her himself.
Cue glitter interlude.
They were so utterly brilliant! They exited the stage with a hug - this was apparently their first ever show as Fist Fite. Pretty great opening slot!
How I love me some Klaxons! My first exposure to them was in the Islanders issue of British Vice is early early 2006 with a picture by Pegah - Vice mascot and sister to their frequent music video collaborator Saam Farahmand. I fell a bit in love with them after visiting their myspace and tried to orchestrate seeing them before I left the UK in March while they were still unsigned, but to no avail since I didn't have the money to go down south (even though it was only 10 pounds return on National Express at the time).
So I waited and waited. And waited some more. And finally I saw them last night.
I remember my surprise upon first hearing one of their album tracks.
"There are guitars in it?"
I knew they used guitars, but there was never any obvious guitar sound in their demos - just electronics.
Last night, their sound surprised me again. They are way punk on stage - way stripped down, way guitar, collapsing onto each other with un-contained energy. Still very danceable - when you're not crushed against the stage.
Simon spit his drink onto the audience in regular intervals and the front of the stage descended into a rough, but friendly mosh pit.
There was an orange netting divider in the middle of the venue, separating the drinkers, from the all ages.
As soon as they got on stage, Simon said he didn't want to be on his current side, because then he couldn't drink. He really wanted to trade with James. James assured him it didn't apply to the people on stage, but he wasn't having any of the rationalizing and walked over to stand on the side of the stage in line with the over 21 segment of the crowd and asked for a drink, at which point someone in the front row passed up theirs, and he drank a sip before handing it back.
Throughout the night they traded vocal duties, instruments and mics - a constant criss-crossing of the stage.
Jamie and James teased Simon on stage about him getting a tattoo of his girlfriend's name before the show. I'm not sure if he really did get one, but him and Lovefoxxx seem to be super serious.
The CSS sticker he has on his guitar was cute.
For Magick they stopped towards the end and took a toweling off and drink break, before finishing the song out.
Their live show is so great that I think they'd please a music fan of any genre, winning them over on their energy alone. They really engaged the crowd last night - complimenting a guy in the back on his persistent clapping, telling a few people up front how they felt their pain (due to the crush of the mosh). They dedicated a song first to the all ages section, then feeling as though they were leaving out the over 21s who self admittedly "sucked" (as one audience member shouted) they dedicated a song to them, and finished out their dedication tri-fecta by dedicating the next song of the set to Portland's own Fist Fite, with whom they became fast friends.
They continually said they were from London - as if it was impossible to tell.
There was no encore.
They are so unpretentious. I wasn't expecting any pretension, but for the level of hype and success they've rightfully achieved, you'd kind of expect them to be a little bit distant or removed. Not so. They were out with the audience the entire night, even late to appear on stage due to conversations with concert-goers. And as soon as the show ended, they jumped off stage and went outside, engaging in even more conversations and photo taking.
Klaxons set list:
Bouncer
Atlantis to Interzone
Hall of Records
Totem
Golden Skans
As Above So Below
Two Receivers
Magick
Gravitys Rainbow
It's Not Over Yet
Isle of Her
Four Horsemen
Let's set the scene:
It's just before Easter 2002 in NYC. I'm standing in CBGBs waiting for Phantom Planet to take the stage and there are two girls standing behind me discussing how hot Andrew WK is. I turn around in a mild state of shock.
"You think he's hot!?!"
"Yes!"
"Why!?!"
My only previous exposure to him had been his grizzly bloody CD cover and from my Econ classmate Ben Starky.
She proceeded to list his many appeals and then we got talking on other topics from us both having been born in SF and about attending NYU.
Cue it up two months later and it's June 14th. I'm in line at the check-in counter at the Portland airport about to fly to Londontown for the first time.
Ahead of me I notice a familiar face. Why it's only Andrew WK!
By this time I was fully enraptured with his music and had been bummed that I missed his concert the night prior due to last minute packing.
Oh my god- he was SO cool in person! Dressed in purple sweatpants he happily took a photo with me and then his roadies carried my luggage up to the counter and gave me stickers with his face on it. Waiting in the terminal, I instantly called Ben Starky to relay the news.
Andrew and I ended up on the same flight- his final destination Germany. He sat behind me and we waved to each other.
The next time I saw him was at Misshapes this past February 17th 2007. He played like a five song set:
The introduction:
Before the evening had been pretty demure, but when he took the stage the real crush began. I left that night with scuff marks all over my red shoes that I had only worn once prior and bruises all over my legs. I kept getting hurled on top of the speakers, so most of the time I was plugging my ears-it was already really really loud, but when my ear would literally be resting against the speaker. . .
(that is why I look SO cool covering my ears in my horribly oversized T-shirt featuring the logo of my dad's band The Frontline Rockers when he lived in NYC in the early 80's) (photo care of Misshapes)
He was full of ecstatic energy, singing along with the Misshapes photographer who was on stage with him and crowd surfing.
Toward the end Leigh and Jackson got in on the photo taking action-
He closed with the very appropriate 'I Love New York City'.
This time-in Portland at Rotture, it was a much much different set and much longer too - clocking in at a full hour.
Before he took the stage The Tube's DJ Linoleum played a set that was full of remixes and way house-y. When he came out at 1am, he started by just jamming on the keyboard for a good solid ten-13 minutes.
He sang along to his CD and after playing opener 'I Get Wet', started grabbing hands of audience members - boys and girls alike so that eventually we were almost all up on stage. I think he only sang tracks off his first album, at least to my recollection. It was SO fun! At first-when he was just at his keyboard, I wasn't really feeling it, but it was totally worth having to shell out for a cab ride home!
(He repeatedly rocked out through out the night clutching the mic at his waist-line.)
He dedicated a song to Amanda Luna who thank god requested 'She is Beautiful'-by far my favorite song by him! I remember back when Kelly Osbourne was still cool (yes she was at one time in my eyes during the 'Papa Don't Preach' era) and she did a duet with him to that song. I remember just eatting up the Rolling Stone coverage and being a tad bit jealous. So it was all a bit surreal to be holding onto his left side while he performed the track at Rotture and sharing the mic with him-me mostly in charge of screaming the choruses.
He threw out tons and tons of free shirts-three different styles-I got a tie-dye one and a white one which I lost somewhere later in the venue after his set.
DJ Never Forget DJ and Lo-Fi-Fnk tour manager extraordinaire emailed this - the tour mix - to me when he and Lo-Fi-Fnk were still in Toronto. I however didn't quite have my 'finger on the pulse' ie I suck at emails and posting things in a relevant time frame. The tour is now over so what's next up for Greg? Don't quite know - some DJ gigs in Brooklyn at the end o' the month, but surely something must be on the horizon for summer. . .
But before the future is the not-too-distant past, and here is his awesome mix entitled "My Life with Lo-Fi-Fnk." I raved about him playing it when they hit Portland, now here it is available for personal consumption!
Behold, he who is E*Rock- most acurately described by Willamette Week as: "Portland's greatest unknown electronic music multitasker, ever."
Emphasis on greatest and ever
If you don't already know him by name, you'll be asking yourself how you don't as his relevance spans several acts and media. Probably his two most visible efforts to enter mainstream territory have been the release of the debut single 'Seventeen Years' from his brother's band Ratatat on his label Audio Dregs as well as the music video for the Gossip's 200K selling single 'Standing in the Way of Control' (not to mention one for Beck as well as the animation for a live action video for the Blow). He makes his own music, releases it as well as others' tunes on CD and vinyl over his two record labels, creates poster art and does so much else that's it's a bit hard to keep up with the chronicles of E*Rock.
Maybe you can follow along. . .
1. What was it like growing up in Nordenham?
Oh, I see you've done your research! Well yeah, it was cool, I guess.
2. a. Did you meet any celebrities while working on the cruise where you met your Fryk beat label partner? Who?
I met the guy from a popular TV show and his infamous wife! I tend to forget celebrity names. I'd like to see that Daft Punk movie that's coming out.
b. Share a story about one particularly memorable and/or strange meeting:
They were despicable human beings. When they weren't looking I put gum in their hair and farted in church and told God it was them.
3.How do the different partnerships in running each label vary?
Running labels is kinda boring business with lots of work for very little payoff. I'm going to take a little time off to work on music and other neglected projects, like music and drawing and video. Don't get me wrong, I'll still keep doing it, but there's less need for it than there was when I started. Everyone has a label these days and no one really has money to buy records.
4.What about the music or the artist makes you want to release their music?
Its mostly friends and sometimes you make a long distance friend and then you're like, hey let's do this! The label is about relationships and ideas, which is what music is about, which is all that life is about. We're all social creatures, more than most will admit. To me a label should be a little more than reproducing plastic discs though.
Oh yeah, I keep forgetting. Maybe tonight? I'm making a note to myself right now.
-okay-I'm going to abandon the numbered format now-
How do you approach remixes? ie by what you feel the song could be or a desire for it to become a whole new entity, or for it to sound like only you could have made it, or . . .
Well, I usually remix songs that I already like, so I try and just
put my own take on it. I think of what sort of beat I would put in there if I was working on the song with that person. Some of the Panther songs I was working on the original with Charlie, so the remix was just trying to find a different way to approach something I had already thought hard about. I'm trying to finish a new mixtape of unofficial remixes, so I have to take acapellas and start more from scratch. My brother got me into that, and has a new mixtape out like that and I love it! Also DJ Copy is totally got me excited to do it as well. His mixtapes are totally crucial!
-What dictates what it will become?
Its like a puzzle. You listen to the the melody and see where it can go, or if it needs to get more dancey. Usually it needs to get more dancey. My brother sticks really close to the original song structure, whereas I never did, so I'm going to try that method. Keep it pop. Sometimes you gotta force the pieces to fit though.
No, though I had kind of a fake blog on the Audio Dregs site, like in 2000. It wasn't very good. I had a "news" part of the site and then I had a hidden "fake news" section, which was blog-like, but the word blog hadn't been invented yet. I was influenced by Mumbleboy's blog- like section at the time.
Did your friends at Urban Honking approach you or did you make the suggestion?
Yeah, when they started Jona asked if I'd like to do one, and I said no. I'm not a writer, and I don't really like writing about myself. I thought the whole blog as diary thing was weird, because I don't get into the whole "this is what I like, this is my opinion, blah blah, me me me..." thing. But then I was dating this girl that was doing a blog with Urho (loves made me do weirder things) and I was getting into Jona's tour diary blogs at the time too. So I realized I could just put up pictures with no text and that would be fine.
Also, as the economy got worse Kinko's made it harder to steal copies (Ed- Seriously, what is up with their pre-pay?) and this caused less people to do regular zines. Blogs sort of
replaced personal zines, and became the new zine.
Its been dormant, but I'm planning to publish one more issue together with Yeti Publishing. Just as soon as I get some time.
You have a show coming up in June in Tokyo-will there be a theme? Will it be all 2d art or . . . ?
It's at Hanna gallery with my friend Mumbleboy. It'll be video with drawings, and some 3D stuff as well, made out of cardboard mostly.
Has anything (weird fan mail, . . .) resulted from your doing the video for The Gossip's 'Standing in the Way of Control'? When creating the video did you think they were soon to reach the international exposure that they have now? Were they involved in the concept?
The weirdest thing that resulted was a feature/interview for "video of the week" in the NME. Otherwise, nothing weird came out of it. The UK label didn't even like the video and wasn't going to use it at first. Then they used stills for a CD, 12" and 7" singles for the song and never sent me copies of the records! I even emailed them and they didn't write back. I've never seen the records in person even. I think its a good video, and a good song, but I don't think anyone had an idea they'd get so big. They're super stars in the UK and that's awesome.
I still haven't heard the entire record, Nathan said he'd give me a copy of the record on vinyl, so I never picked it up, but I haven't seen him in months.
Before we made the video I got together with the band and Maggie from KRS and we talked about a concept. What we came up with was "gayos", which is gay+chaos. That was all we came up with and I had like two weeks to get it done. So I painted a make-shift green screen, we shot some video, and Ben Jones and I made some animations and put it together in the last 5 days or so after that. It was a fun project.
Please describe yourself in five words or less-as a complete sentence or just a jumble of words:
Mirror or window? You decide.
What can we expect in the rest of 2007 (related to you and/or anything that takes your fancy-- alien invasions? a new record for world's largest pumpkin? . . .)
I'm trying to make a book of art, another issue of Thumb, release a new record of some of my own music, a mixtape, a collaborative DVD with Ola Vasiljeva, and move to Berlin for the summer. I'd love to go on tour again someday. Also, there's a bunch of music videos in the works I'd love to finish.
I have no idea what will happen in 2007.
Watch animation on Collective Jryk (a site made possible with a grant from Microsoft haha :) P.S. It'll make your eyes [insert antonym for bleed] in the same way/in the good way that Casette Playa's does (stylist to M.I.A., Klaxons, and sometimes Patrick Wolf)
What, what? Perez Hilton linked to Not on the Guest List!
My traffic only just recently began averaging about 200-250 people a day, but then yesterday I noticed mid-afternoon I had 819 visitors so far in the day. I knew I must have gotten linked so I clicked for the referers and imagine my shock at seeing it was Perez Hilton. Of. All. Blogs. Cue screaming.
Yep! And if you read this blog in November, you may know I have an unhealthy obsession with him.
It's such a fluke that he would post it, though he does love himself some Beth. I wonder if someone forwarded it to him or if he took note of it due to the trackback in the beginning of Gossip Live at the Wonder to his post of Beth+Kate Moss.
It's also funny as last August I was gonna do a Perez theme week, culminating with an interview with him, only he couldn't do an email interview- only over the phone, and I had no way of recording it so the idea fell through.
This is just super crazy! I heart this blog! I heart the connectedness of it!
Only it's not really my review-most of it was cut and it was minimal to begin with. Plus the word "hot!" (including the exclamation mark) was added, which kinda didn't go there (not that they aren't), so read on. . .
But actually, before I start can we say OH MY GOD!!!! (Click the linked OH MY GOD and you'll be joining me in saying it)
Before the first opening act New Bloods took the stage a very cool song played overhead. I had to know who it was, so I left my spot in front of the stage and made my way to the back to find out. I asked a very familiar looking girl who it was and she replied The Blow. I consider myself pretty familiar with Khaela Maricich's output and this song sounded way electro, so I walked away mildly puzzled over it being the Blow and why the girl looked so familiar.
As soon as I had maneuvered back into my original spot, it instantly dawned on me so I made my way back over.
"Are you in a band?"
"Yeah."
"Are you in Swan Island?"
"Yes."
And our conversation continued. We talked about SXSW and their upcoming shows.
Swan Island opened for the Gossip last time they played the Wonder in September, a show I unfortunately didn't attend.
So-back to the show-NEW BLOODS KILLED! They are from Portland which I can barely believe as they're too good to have not have heard of before. Their take on dance rock has a bit of a ho-down edge to it that's raw and rhythmic- a bit of cross between Sons and Daughters and Holy Hail.
I instantly became obsessed, which I instantly told each of them while waiting in line for the restroom after their set and while buying their 7 inch after the show.
Next up was Reverse Dotty. Perhaps the most memorable part of their set was a few songs in. The lead singer dedicated a song called 'Just Say No' to her grandfather who passed away a few days prior. As she made the dedication a girl in the audience started screaming to her: "You're so hot! I want to have sex with you!" Talk about inappropriate.
The highlights of their set were when they resorted to preprogrammed beats and all sang. When the quintet did that they really excelled and very much channeled the sound of White Rose Movement.
They covered my favorite Daft Punk song 'Face to Face' (which I mentioned in my Lo-Fi-Fnk post) and closed their set doing an intensely cool thing - dancing, striking robotical poses, freezing in place for a few counts in unison, and then starting the 3 steps over again.
Onto the Gossip-
Beth appeared out of the curtains to begin their set. Some guy jumped up on stage a couple songs in to kiss her. Cue awkward moment. She went behind the stage curtains and reappeared when he was gone then forged on.
Brace Paine was in top form - on his toes (literally) and full of unending shoulder shrugs. I remember being captivated by his onstage persona the first time I saw them opening for Sons and Daughters at Glasgow's ABC in late 2005. I remember myself moving closer to the stage to stare at his asymmetrical haircut and sleeves. However, this night my eyes were on Beth pretty much the whole time-and how could they not be? In Glasgow she had been on the defensive, but here, even though she admitted she was nervous from the Wonder stage, she exuded confidence from her voice to her dancing that drew everyone in with the energy of two red bulls consumed before their set.
The show really kicked into gear on their seventh song 'Standing in the Way of Control'. Beth went barefoot and the whole audience was singing the "whoa-oh-ohhs."
From that they went directly into 'Listen Up'. The only Gossip member with a setlist was Hannah who started each song.
Beth began grabbing hands of audience members and pulling them up on stage. I of course jumped right on up. At the end of the song she wanted us all to crowd surf, no one took her up on the offer. Four girls stayed up - one planting a perfect kiss on Beth's cheek. No mater that she sweated her make up off and was wiping her face off with a donated bandana, the lip print stayed perfect for the entire show.
After they played their cover version of 'Are You That Somebody', they stopped, kinda looking like they didn't know where to go next. Then came the chants from the crowd: "Rap! Rap! Rap! Rap!" After about a minute Beth just launched into Timbaland's verse-which isn't apart of their recorded version.
They closed the set with a two song encore, Beth thanking the audience for singing along to the first of the two songs that began with only her and Brace Paine on stage, Hannah coming in about mid-way through the song.
After the show Marisa and I stood waiting to snap some candid pics. While Beth smoked outside we spent the time chatting to Brace Paine and his southern drawl.
Nathan noticed the eye-patch I was wearing on my arm and asked if he could wear it in the photos. Lame pirate jokes ensued after I asked if he knew any, with him continuing to answer mine as he signed autographs for those requesting them.
In case you wannna use some in the near future: Nathan: "What's a pirate's favorite subject in school?"
Answer ➔ "Arrrggghhh-t!"
I rattled off a string: Nilina: What did the pirate say on his road trip?
Answer ➔ Arrrgghhh we there yet? Nilina: What's a pirate's favorite Wayne's World character?
Answer ➔ Garrggghhh-th. Parrrggghhh-ty time X-cellent (as in x marks the spot-yes I have too much time on my hands to have come up with that)
Then we got onto the subject of them playing Perez Hilton's Bday party - ironically the first thing he mentioned was Paris Hilton being there as well as John Stamos.
Oh-and Nathan is "Ready to Uff" (not so long story)
Later, when we got into taking photos my camera was a bit spazzy and I was laughing too hard at their hi-jinks for the photos to turn out good, but what-evs.
And my SUPER exciting news: Me and my Scam Artiste-ness will now be making custom dresses for Ms.Ditto!
Asking for the lights to be dimmed, YACHT aka Jona Bechtolt (and one half of the Blow) took about announcing the nonexistent Portland Trail Blazers in his best ominous hush of an announcer voice as smoke began wafting from the stage and through the venue. He then declared the audience the boss- whatever we want, we get and kicked straight into his set opening for Man Man at Berbati's Pan.
He started out with more noise, electronic, dance-resembling tracks that sounded like a blend of bits of every genre imaginable. One track featuring female backing vocals had a bit of a hip hop edge to it - both lyrically and musically, but then only on certain refrains - it sounded a bit 'My Humps'-ish. For another he had Bobby Birdman guest on a track. He proclaimed it to be happening through the power of the internet - implying that Bobby was live online.
From the stage to the audience, YACHT let loose a stream of impeccably coregraphed spastic dancing - what a show!
YACHT conducted a question and answer section mid-set.
The three questions put to him:
1. Will you play 'See a Penny Pick it Up'?
2. Do you like chocolate?
3. What makes you kinky?
His answers?
1. "Yes."
2. "No."
3. "See me after the show."
Soon after he said he was only playing two more songs at which point an onlooker screamed "3!"
And because the crowd was "the boss," YACHT obliged, hurling out two especially hardcore tracks (while looking especially hardcore) and then a very western one which allowed him to close his set using the mic cord as a whip and have it perfectly fit the theme of the song.
Official verdict: YACHT should think about joining up with Panther and forming their own brand of aerobics ala Punk Rock Aerobics. I would totally take a weekly class from them whenever they're not on tour!
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