Diplo, Abe Vigoda & more @ First Avenue

Diplo brought along some of his friends and protègès for his wildly eclectic Mad Decent showcase at the First Avenue Mainroom Friday night. The show was a nice mixture of avant-garde punk based music and block rocking beats spun by world class DJ’s.

The first “band” of the night was the Brooklyn based all girl trio Telepathe. They make music that ranges from droning noise rock to trippy, swirling dance music. They relied heavily on programmed beats and synths, but had a quirky (almost awkward) stage presence that helped them connect with the sparse crowd in attendance for their early set performance. Their upcoming full length, Dance Mother, was produced by Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio and the new music they played bares the influence of other bands that he has worked with, including Celebration and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. They also have moments where they sound like critical darlings High Places, although that is more apparent on record than live. The band seemed a little intimidated to be on the big stage, but they have a promising future and are worth keeping an eye on.

The second band of the night was the buzz group Abe Vigoda. The four piece band plays arty punk music in the vein of No Age and Mae Shi. They had some technical trouble right off the bat with lead singer Michael Vidal having problems with both of his guitars, the second being thrown in disgust after it stopped working. He left the stage and there was a moment where the band said they were going to have to cut short their set, but he reappeared with an SG from another band and was able to finish their set. They play swirling punk music with lots of tropical influences. Drummer Reggie Geurreo is a machine behind the drums and kept their bouncy rhythms moving forward with his frantic drumming. The band played from their back catalog but focused on their latest release, the excellent full length Skeletons, and even played some new songs during their 30 minute set.

The rest of the show was DJs spinning their records. I don’t have anything technical or highly specific to say about the DJs, other than they were great and lots of fun. First up was Moon Goons. He had the unfortunate task of trying to get a crowd of twenty people dancing at eight pm, which is never an easy task. The mainroom floor never seemed so big as it did when there were two lonely people out there dancing (or more precisely flailing limbs) to the music. Both Australian DJ Boy 8 Bit and Diplo fared much better as far as crowds went. Boy 8 Bit really got the crowd going after Abe Vigoda, but it was Diplo who was the obvious highlight. He had a more theatrical (read: crazy) show and had the luxury of all of the bells and whistles that come with being the big draw on the bill. The show had the feel of a better financed and more produced Too Much Love dance party that takes place every Saturday night at First Avenue. Hipsters of all ages put on their most ironic and colorful outfits and grooved to the pulsing and throbbing beats of some great DJs, who were more than happy to get the kids on the floor. Dancing at shows is not something that I generally partake in, which put me in the minority of this show full of people ready to groove to the wild rhythms of this talented group of artists.

The event as a whole was a satisfying and enjoyable show that moved quickly between acts and had a great mixture of musical styles. Since the two bands did not go back to back, there was no time wasted between sets as the DJs were already spinning before the band even started taking their gear off the stage. The show was a testament to the talent that Diplo and his crew can bring together and should be a good example for other promoters/crews on how to mix different genres to challenge audiences and expose listeners to a variety of different bands.

Also: Abe Vigoda “Reviver” Review