Gang Gang Dance & DJ/Rupture - MHOW pics & other dates

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GANG GANG DANCE
MUSIC HALL OF WILLIAMSBURG
JANUARY 15, 2010

Gang Gang Dance wants you to lose your mind. No one in the band outright ventured to say such a provocative statement during their sold out show Friday January 15 at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, but they made a convincing argument nonetheless.

Quick step back: to be fair, it's doubtful anyone in the group would wish such a horrible fate on any of their fans. But Gang Gang Dance's last record, St. Dymphna, was named after the patron saint of those afflicted with mental and nervous disorders, and during their spellbinding performance, one couldn't help but feel like a prayer to the patroness was in order.

Despite a rousing and eclectic warm-up DJ set by DJ/Rupture, there was not a palpable sense of excitement as the headliner took the stage. Weirdly enough, the house music in between acts was absent until just before Gang Gang Dance emerged. This might have been a tell; when everything gets quiet, it's the first sign of mental destitution.

And as the band went on, things didn't get immediately loud, just weird. Like woozy songs that evoked a Club Med vacation tainted with hallucinogenics, weird. It was even a few numbers into Gang Gang Dance's performance until the crowd started giving way to the rising tide of misfiring synapses and let loose to the music. Percussion came from all angles, urging teardrop synth lines and ambient guitar swashes into a cohesive front against sanity. Stylish singer Lizzi Bougastos (looking like a gypsy with a Barney's expense account) smiled and kicked her menacing heels in the air, a confusing and eye-catching mix of emotions that resonated with an increasingly frenzied audience.

From there, it didn't take long for the accelerated onset of dementia to permanently solidify. A dancer with a crocheted mask, draped in cloth and spastic to no end, provided even more inspiration towards madness, although his acrobatics proved to be just an embellishment. As Gang Gang Dance finished their set with a heavy trance meltdown, the audience's sweat and energy fused into full-on insanity. That is until the show was over, and everyone calmed down and left the venue with almost no lingering.

Perhaps that was the point. Gang Gang Dance doesn't want you to go actually crazy; they just want you experience first hand what it feels like to own the mind of the infirmed. Call them mental hygiene advocates.

pictures...

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DJ/Rupture

Gang Gang Dance

Gang Gang Dance - 2010 Tour Dates
Mar 25 Ottobar Baltimore, Maryland
Mar 26 123 Pleasant St. Morgantown, West Virginia
Mar 27 Big Ears Festival Knoxville, Tennessee
Mar 29 The Southern Charlottesville, Virginia
Apr 23 Terminal 5, New York, NY w/ Hot Chip