DOWNLOAD: Congorock - Trust No One Mixx (zSHARE MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Deviant Soundsystem - Jump (Backwards Bootleg) (Sendspace MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Deviant Soundsystem - Deviant Sound Sessions on Australia's PulseRadio.net (zSHARE MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Double Exposure - What You Need (DJ Duckcomb edit) (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Runaway at People Don't Dance No More May (MP3)

Chromeo & Rude Bear @ Webster Hall - October 2, 2008 (CRED)

We're barely into October and signs of what a crazy month it's going to be are already showing. For me it all started Thursday night with Chromeo. Hell, even the bears were out! As always, Dave and P played a very clean, energetic set that included their entire album, Fancy Footwork, as well as a few older tracks from their first album. The crowd was losing it - singing, dancing, and screaming along in a way that I've seen only in response to these Québécois electro-poppers. In addition to being consistently good performers, Chromeo are so unassuming and appreciative of the success they've found, always making it a point to credit New York as one of the first places that welcomed them. It was a great (albeit familiar - I need some new songs!) way to start dancing in October.

I took a break before heading back to Webster Hall that same night, arriving just in time (after being thoroughly frisked and forced to throw out the suspicious, crumpled tissue in my pocket that was holding my earplugs) to catch the Bloody Beetroots deejay around 1. The crowd, despite being pretty decently sized, only took up about a third of the huge room. What they appeared to lack in size, was made up for in energy as about two thirds of the people there were relentlessly getting down - totally losing their shit, as the Beetroots played tons of their own tracks and reworkings. They also teased the crowd, cutting back and forth between their bangers and a few unexpected tracks like Sabotage by the Beastie Boys and Jump Around by House of Pain. Overall it was one of the crazy, relentlessly banging, unstoppable dj sets I've come to expect from the masked Italian duo. Unfortunately things seemed to be cut short after someone whispered something to them. Within minutes they were both zipping up their jackets and packing up in time for Alexander Technique to get on the decks again (he had spun earlier, right after Chromeo finished) at 2.

Friday night I found myself at Webster Hall, yet again, for the Attack of the Unibros tour featuring A-trak and Boys Noize. After far too much interaction (in the form of horrible pick-up lines and involuntary grinding) with the Webster Hall regulars the night before, I was a little nervous about going back. The novelty of the big room & loud system was beginning to wear off. I hoped the music would be great enough to help me ignore the more annoying crowd members (hopefully as the folks over at Webster are now putting together some real quality electronic line-ups, the crowds will begin to mirror that more).

When I arrived just after 1, the place was absolutely packed (even more than when MSTRKRFT deejayed back in May). There was an empty area over on the left (mainly due to the fact that the view of the deejays was totally obscured by a huge speaker stack) where I spent my time during A-trak's hour long set from 1ish to 2ish, followed by most of Boys Noize's hour long set from 2ish to 3ish, before I headed onstage for the best part - their joint set that went until about 4. Each of their sets were very good. A-trak's was heavy on a lot of new tracks I didn't know that sounded great. One I did know, was Mr. Oizo's "Positif Extract" (which I happened to post about on my blog just one day prior) which sounded absolutely AMAZING out on a loud system. I can't wait to hear it when I'm out again.

I mentioned some concerns about Boys Noize's sets getting to be a bit repetitive/seeing him deejay too often over too short a period of time last week. My concerns disappeared pretty quickly as he opened with some of his own, newer material followed by a diverse mix of current electro, devoid of any of the transitions I remembered from any of the times I saw him in the past.

Despite being up close, the stage was so packed it was difficult to see who was deejaying when they were on together, but between the two of them the tracks were all over the place in an amalgam of old and new (including Necessary Evil by Armand Van Helden, Breathe by the Prodigy, Cross the Dancefloor by Treasure Fingers, Shake & Pop by Green Velvet, and the Boys Noize remix of Justice's Phantom as well as Feist's My Moon My Man to name a few) that had everybody losing it.

As we head into week 2 of the crazy month that is October there is sure to be plenty more where that came from, starting with Thursday (10/9) and ending with a chance to win free tickets for an event this Saturday night...

Continue reading "the Thursday & Friday night in Dance w/ Showtrotta"