Can you dance with your arms folded across your chest? How much dancing is enough to show that you’re down for having fun, but not too much that you seem, you know, like a raging doofus? Will I get any free drinks?
In pursuit of the answers to these questions, I, in the spirit of pure scientific curiosity, set off to the DFA Records showcase at the finest music venue in all of Brooklyn, New York, and quite possibly the world: Williamsburg’s Northsix (full disclosure: I used to work there).
DFA RECORDS SHOWCASE, NORTHSIX
DFA records (Death From Above) had their biggest hits in 2002 and 2003, releasing a string of ironically danceable noise-disco tracks that spoke straight to the hipster’s heart.
DFA has declined somewhat in the ensuing years, though. Freak Folk and Noise have been on the rise, along with a general attitudinal retreat in the college scene from, what’s the phrase? “Enjoying yourself,” I think is what I would go with. Add to this general critical ambivalence towards this year’s Juan Maclean release (it was widely dismissed as falling off the edge DFA had walked in previous releases between fuzzy, guitary dance and straight up house music), and you have an uncertain crowd and importance for this year’s showcase.
Imagine my delight, then, at the mass of tight-jeaned and white-shod masses that packed Northsix at last night’s sold out show. Did I mention that I like them? I do.
Perhaps the night’s oddest facet, aside from the fact that everyone seemed to be wearing skinny suspenders (are these back? Were they ever “in” to begin with?) was that the Juan Maclean was the only band playing who is actually signed to DFA records. Usually, a label showcase, predictably enough, showcases the talent on that label.
I arrived about halfway through Hot Chip’s set. It thumped along pleasantly enough, and brought to mind nothing as much as playing a vector video game. Where you spin the ball, you know, and it’s all crazy? They moved around the stage well, with the guitarist at one point muscling in between the two keyboardists to do a sort of Van Halen-esque instrument-playing-simultaneous-swaying kind of thing.
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