Zen: nice venue, a little small, but I suspect a bigger crowd turned out
than expected.
I mean, I drove down from the Bay Area and brought two friends, so
that's at least three people they couldn't have planned on... BTW, not
the easiest-to-find place in LA, but what do I know.
Anyway, it was packed, and while I spent most of the in-between DJ sets
smoking and drinking (these things not being allowed upstairs, where the
action was) what I heard was pretty good. I was actually surprised at
how immediately danceable most of the cuts were, though to tell the
truth it could have just been the fact that everything was coming
through a very large and excellent-sounding PA.
Lex had some trouble getting started because of a bad cable, until
Devine loaned him a spare, and then about thirty thousand people came up
front and immediately began standing stock-still with their arms crossed
to the beat. See below for rant.
I've never heard Lex before and was duly impressed. Some slick stuff,
especially at the end, when I asked the guy next to me if he had a
lighter, so I could hold it up in the air (I only brought matches).
Solid, if a little wanting on the performance side of things- lime green
shirt and purple tie notwithstanding, Lex's stage presence... what am I
talking about? This is IDM, I forgot. Nevermind.
I took a breather and came back up just in time for Richard to start up.
Holy shit. Devine's set was definitely engineered to work a crowd.
Judging by the woohoos and the jumping-up-and-down alone I would have
thought I was at some kind of show where people play guitars and shout
into microphones. I was able to show off my latest dance move, where I
act like I'm having a grand mal standing up, and then adjust my glasses.
Devine's a fucking genius live. If his album had been put together this
well (or sounded as good on a home stereo) I'd listen to it all the
fucking time on repeat. Even the noisy breakdowns in between tracks
sucked me in. I spent a solid hour completely outside of my own head for
once, and this is a big compliment from me. Some harder techno-ish
tracks towards the end really had people going, and I can't wait for
another release if his new stuff all sounds this good. Fuck it, I can't
wait for another release anyway. Remind me to buy the Lex album too.
Frankly it was well worth the drive, the search, and the smell. I don't
know how anybody can say smoke spoils a show for them when I can stand
next to a guy huffing a J who apparently hasn't washed in a couple of
days and not mind a bit. I guess if the show weren't as fantastic as
this one, I would be annoyed, but... yeah. Awesome show.
One last thing, and this goes out to the lurkers mentioned above, who
apparently showed up to make the rest of feel uncomfortable-
If you're going to stand up front, you better be intending to break a
sweat. I would think at least the musicians themselves would appreciate
it a bit more.
overheard line of the evening, in response to a tip that Devine was
about to begin:
"yeah, three laptops, man, no way I'm gonna miss that!"
Thank you and goodnight
Tom
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