Kid 606/Tree Wave/ Dj Nature @ Redblood Club

Last night at the Kid 606 show, I was thinking about people who primarily listen to rock music, particularly those that are serious indie or punk fans, and how those people tend to react to dance or electronic music. Then today, I was going through the comment posts on here, and came across one that provided a good example of the attitude that I was considering:

"at least btd (Black Tie Dynasty) play their own instruments.but what is sad,is that any monkey can push any key on a computer program and sound good.it seems easy enough.but sadly enough, not always the case..ie.treewave"


When I was 15 and thought Bad Religion was the coolest band on the face of the earth, I probably would have completely agreed with that comment. Today, however, the very notion that someone is more "organic" or respectable because they "play their own instrument" is totally and completely laughable to me, and anyone with half a brain should know better. Not to pick on Black Tie Dynasty yet again, but lets just use them as an example since that is the example that the Anon poster used. BTD obviously play electric guitars, and they use amps, and PAs, and effects processors, and microphones, and pedals, and everything else under the sun to manipulate the sounds of the guitar, the vocals and even the drums. When rock bands like BTD play live, they are using a club's PA system in order to amplify the sounds so that you can hear them. When they record music, they go into a studio and more likely that not use digital equipment to record their songs and engage in all other kinds of digital sound manipulation, just like most performers do today. Again, I'm not saying there is anything wrong with that, and that is exactly my point. There is nothing wrong with it. When you think about it, guitars were a technological innovation when they were first created, as was reel to reel tape, and sound proof rooms and mixing boards and microphones and pretty much every musical instrument that has ever been invented or studio that has been built to record them. That was all technology too. I guess the only difference that people like Anon see between a guitar and protools is that the technology is digital, and the manipulation of that technology requires slightly less physical activity than playing a guitar or drums. And if that is their basis for saying that there is something wrong with a band like Tree Wave getting up on stage and playing video game music, then I really won't even dignify the argument with a response, because it doesn't make any sense. Besides, I thought only rednecks in Texas militias and shit were afraid of computers. Guess I was wrong. The point is, digital programs are instruments in every sense of the word, created by humans to make music. Any music that incorporates anything other than vocals uses some kind of human created technology, and people should just learn to accept it, because their stubbornness will cause them to miss out on some really great stuff, and make them sound like they haven't put more than two seconds of thought into the whole thing.

Anyone that didn't go to last night's show really did miss out. When we showed up at the Red Blood Club, DJ Nature was in the middle of proving why he is one of the best DJs in DFWd right now. He played a great set of reggae, reggaeton, hip hop, experimental, dance rock, and even a little Kid A Radiohead. His mix was ridiculous, and the medium sized crowd at the show ate up every bit of it, dancing their asses off non stop until the end of his set. If you haven't at least thought about checking this guy out already, then I don't really know what to tell you. Just do it before he moves on to bigger and better places. No one else around here is doing what he does.

Tree Wave followed Nature with a set that, despite some sound problems, was one of the most exciting I have seen from any local band in a very long time. Creating music from old video game sounds and computer programs sounded like a gimmick to me, and if the music had in any way been cutesy or obvious it would have been really bad. But it wasn't. In fact, Tree Wave was exactly what what their Myspace page indicated: loud, noisy, spacey electronic that reminded me of My Bloody Valentine, Jesus and Mary Chain, Stereolab, and of course Eno, whom they covered to open the set. Like I said, they had some sound problems that might have prevented the show from becoming absolutely amazing (the sound at the club in general was full of treble and just not that great), but I'll tell you it was pretty close anyway.

At one point, the male member of the group played some old video game on stage that he had rigged to play music. I forget which game it was, but the screen was very similar to pac man. Every time he would go around a different sphere of the screen, eating all the dots, a different chord would be played, so the music that resulted was based entirely on where his guy on the screen was at any given time. He could make one chord play longer by staying in one ring for a longer period of time, or the opposite. The sounds built up, getting louder and faster on each new level, until it sounded like the whole thing was going to explode on a fast distorted, high pitched wail. Then it was over, and he didn't die once. It was really pretty insane, and the music was quite interesting too. That was what was so great about the whole thing. The music was really really good, despite the sound problems, and aside from the fact that they were making it with video games. It was great stuff completely on its own, with or without the band's back story. And props should be given to their female vocalist as well, who dealt with some sound issues but still gave a great performance, adding a whole other element to their sound that separates them from most laptop based electronic acts. The set was short, but we plan on seeing them again very soon.

Kid 606 was also wonderful. Not knowing nearly as much about dance music as I'd like to, I'll just say that he mixed in all kinds of genres, drum n bass, hip hop, old school Euro techno, and many others to produce an extremely dense, fast and hard sound that was completely captivating and danceable throughout the entire set, even though Kid hardly ever slowed it down to give you a breather. One look at the sizeable crowd dancing at the front of the stage indicating that many people didn't want or need a breather however, and a glance out into the courtyard about half way through the set revealed a good number of people drenched in sweat, all of whom went back inside to finish the set.

A friend and I were talking after the show about how "rockers" often don't know what to make of electronic dance music being played in a setting like Redblood club, which is primarily designed for rock music. All of that is probably changing, and soon many rock n roll fans that can't get into electronic music will have to change their minds, or just become completely irrelevant. But until then, I must deliver a message to many of Dallas' guitar based rock bands: you guys might "play your own instruments" or whatever, but most of you haven't come close to affecting a crowd the way that Kid 606, Tree Wave, and Nature did last night. And while I'm not suggesting that you sell all your guitars and buy turntables like the band in "Losing My Edge," you might want to think about some of the things that electronic artists around here are starting to do much better than you are. You might want to think about how you can put on a show that people will actually find, you know, inspiring. Because playing guitars and keeping time just isn't enough anymore. And thank God for that. Last night's show was one of the best we have seen within the Dallas city limits in months. And there wasn't one guitar in sight.


(EDIT: As my new best friend pointed out in the comments thread, DJ Stephen R. should get some props for putting together a really good show. I hope he continues to do things like this in the future.)