Rating: NNNNN
A la Modica
The Munk boys took over Andy Poolhall Saturday night as part of Fascination , bringing their German/Italian take on the post-everything dance party.
After the Fascination residents armed up the dance floor, Jonas Imbrery dropped some disco, acid house and punky electro. His partner, Mathias Modica , followed him, getting into some weirdo 80s punk funk along with some quirky electro-house.
They weren’t the flashiest mixers but still put more effort into their transitions than most DJs in this style. The crowd seemed to be enjoying themselves thoroughly, although if you had to pick between the two, Modica got more of a reaction from the dance floor than Imbrery. It was surprising to see that the random clubbers were enjoying it just as much as those who came specifically for Munk, despite the limited crossover appeal of these weirdo dance grooves.
Allien nation
Berlin’s Ellen Allien frequently gets lumped in with the new-electro sound, but she’s not nearly as rock-influenced as most of that music. She clearly comes from more of a techno background. Her set at the Mod Club Theatre last Friday bounced back and forth between electronic breakbeats and straight-up techno. At first, that formula didn’t grab the crowd, but as her set progressed she gradually pulled them in and got most of the club dancing. Though not an extraordinary night of music, it was satisfying nonetheless. The Mod Club Theatre has all the fancy lights of a dance club and the sound is pretty decent, but there’s something about the room that makes it seem much more suited to live bands. Allien looked kind of lost on the big stage by herself, and for the first half of her set the 10 feet in front of the stage were empty because the stage lights were blinding the people dancing.
Conversion complete
Friday night ended at Boa-Redux for the Conversion party, which has been trying to introduce techno to the Boa crowd for the past few months. The first few were pretty slow and dead, but the night’s slowly picking up steam. While Friday wasn’t as packed as a regular Saturday night at the after-hours club, it got quite a respectable turnout. Downstairs in the lounge, Vancouver’s Luke McKeehan churned out dubby West Coast house. He dropped some nice tracks but didn’t seem to be able to connect with the crowd. Upstairs, French DJ Phil Weeks pounded that huge system, and in his case the audience responded. He wasn’t really playing straight-up techno either, but a mix of bumpin’ house and funky techno.
Following Weeks, NYC’s Tony Rohr stepped up to perform live, unleashing some hard but atmospheric techno on the room. Live electronic performances often lose something in a club, but Boa is blessed with the kind of sound system that can actually handle the raw un-mastered sounds. Rohr’s not a really big name yet, but if he keeps up these kinds of performances you may see him gathering a good local following.
Fellow New Yorker Dietrich Schoenemann followed Rohr with a DJ set that kept the party going late into the morning. He started off by bringing down the energy a bit, but soon brought up the tempo again, playing until there were only about 20 people left, after which local resident Sarah Mixington finished off the diehards with a housier-than-normal set.
