THE BLOODY BEETROOTS at the Phoenix, Friday, May 24. Rating: NNN
Dance music isn’t traditionally a genre based around live performance, but current EDM superstars have been working hard to change that by borrowing heavily from the conventions of stadium rock and mainstream pop. Italian electro-house producer the Bloody Beetroots once performed mostly as a masked DJ, but his current show feels like a cross between KISS’s campy glam-metal theatrics and a full-on rave.
His band all wore the same Venom mask that has long been his trademark, synths were hidden in a grand piano shell, a chrome 50s microphone was waved around (mostly for visual effect), and a giant glowing sign pulsed in the background – just in case you forgot who you were watching. This is not about subtlety: most of the tunes sound like a computerized take on AC/DC, and the audience responds accordingly with stage diving and fist pumping. Unfortunately, it’s still pretty formulaic big-room dance music, and in a style that sounds increasingly out of date. Nevertheless, it’s big dumb fun, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
