The night ride to the Abbey Pub August 22 was one I could never recreate nor the
show that I would see in the later hours of the night. The all-star
electronic magicians were set as Members Only AV, Kid Color, Vapor
Eyes, and the Brit Electronic group Does it Offend You, Yeah? Now I
knew this would be a great show but did not expect for it to be a
filled house of dance freaks and banging bass's.
Before the show
started I got a chance to talk to a soon-to-be-famous Chicago Dj known
as Kid Color about the in's and out's of the Chicago electronic scene. We met out on the chilly summer night in
front of the pub to discuss what was what in music.
He
told me that he moved out here from California to really grasp the
great electronic scene here. Kid Color has accomplished nothing less
than that with help from names like Steve Aoki, Dark Wave Disco and of
course the group he's in right now, Yello Fever
Q: Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?
KC: "Everybody
know's Chicago for creating House music. Theres such a great electronic
scene here". Chicago is no doubt an Iconic city for dance music and
will always be remebered as the heat of house music. Which became
popular around the Mid-80's by guys like M & M and Frankie Knuckles.
Q: How did you get into Djing?
KC: "Well
it started when I saw Steve Aoki live and I wanted that kind of fun
music. I became somewhat of a fanboy of his. He actually was the guy
who got me connected with Dark Wave Disco. It's funny I herd that Steve
was going to be at a garage sale so I got there really early and just
waited. I told him that I was going to be moving to Chicago soon and he
simply told me to contact Dark Wave Disco. Everything kind of worked
out form there." Dark Wave Disco being of course the the Chicago based
trio that hold massive parties at all the hot clubs in town.
Q: How was playing Lolla? You seemed like you guys were having fun.
KC: "
It was fun but we had some technical problems and we did play the
starting show. See we played in the peak hours of the sun with no cover
over our heads so our computers were becoming over heated and the only
thing that would work is the mouse. We also had only about a 15 minute
period of play for each of us. But hey I got to meet Perry Farrell."
Now I did see them at Lolla and they got the weak hand unfortuntly.
Playing the first show on Sunday which was the hottest of all three
days. But they played it out beatuifully. The crowd did seem to get
into it as well.
Q: Your music seems to really have fun dancy feeling to it. Would you ever go into whole different direction like dubstep?
KC: "I
don't think so, I mean I like some dubstep and my roomate can do some
pretty great dubstep but I never really got into it. I will be playing
a lot more bangers tonight though. The reason I don't really put out a
whole lot of music is because I'm a bit self contious of my music and
want to make it perfect." He did tell me he is planning on releasing an
album in the future but that he just wants it to be perfect. I'm sure
know one would want less than that from him.
Q: Does it seem like the Chicago crowd is getting back into electronic music or has it never left?
KC: "It's
definitly getting a bigger audiance but I don't think it left since
this is the birthplace of House Music. People have always been dancing
to something". I talked to him about where he thought electronic is
heading to and he told me this " I wouldn't be surprised if in a few
years from now it will be in the top charts and taken as more of a main
stream genre. I mean if you look at whose on the top 40 right now you
can hear dance music in most of them." I agreed with him on this and
how guys like Mstrkrft are putting electronic on the map once again
with songs like "Hearbreaker" who have John Legend on the mic.
Q: What was your craziest moment at Lolla as a fan?
KC: "Hmm,
well I came to Lolla from California to see Daft Punk and their show
was much more than I expected. What a great show. But seeing Rage
Against the Machine play was pretty crazy too". Daft Punk of course
being the french techno masters who played at Lolla two years back in a
massive multicolored Pyramid.
Q: For someone who is just starting out to dj what words of advice would you give them?
KC: "Make
sure the crowd likes what your playing, interact with them. Oh and
getting your college to like your Djing is a big help. Of course make
sure you have an audience in the first place."
We discussed on how
it is so important to interact with the crowd to show that the dj does
care to be here and wants you to dance. Looped Noises can only go so
far.
Q: What was your first "holy shit" moment as dj?
KC: "Oh man I
would have to say back when I went to Columbia University I packed the
dorms when I played. I would write my own flyers saying No Beer No
Drugs Just Music. We would put these under all the dorm doors and I
remember Djing in my dorm for over 60 people with actually people in a
line outside my door. Columbia got attention of this and actually liked
it which really helped getting my name out".
Q: I must ask, what musican is your guilty pleasure to listen to?
KC: "Ha,
it has to be Kyle Minouge. Shes like 46, still hot, and making good
music." I shared with him my secret love of listening to trance Dj
Kaskade. Music aimed for the women but I still enjoy it.
Once
the show started Members Only Av came out for one of their last shows.
They pulled out some pretty insane tricks including two guys on
turntables while one was playing guitar to Daft Punk's Human After All.
The whole bunch seemed to be having fun and there was a part of me that
would miss the group. But I do know for a fact that they are just
seperating to do their own things.
The Des Plains Dj, Vapor eyes
did a phenominal job of keeping the crowd on their feet in the
transition times on the stage. Unfortuntly most of the people didn't
even know where he was playing at since he was in a nook on the
upperlevel at the Abbey Pub.
Kid Color came on next and thats
when the real party started! He kept his mix very diverse with
retro-funk to keep you happy and still dancing, begging for more
auditorial gold. Then all of a sudden he would throw a banger beat on
the floor to make the crowd jump for minutes a time. By the end of this
set the crowd felt stuffed with good music and didn't seem to have that
please come back feeling. What I noticed from the crowd during Kid
Color's set was that people seemed to become a lot more comfortable
with just dancing to the music.
"Does it Offend You, Yeah?" was
up after and to my surprise is only one man playing from the entire
band. But in no way did that stop the party from continuing. He had a
much more edgy frigit noise to his mixes. He also really wanted the
crowd to get excited. So much so that at one point he brought the crowd
up on stage and I was included in on this. Us dance freaks only had
about 30 seconds on the stage but it just showed how much fun we were
having. He did have a somewhat odd ways of ending his set by joking and
leaving then coming back. This happend about three times. The one good
thing I can say about this is that he would played fantastic ending
songs. I never thought I would dance to Rage Against the Machine at an
electronic show.
By the end of the night my group and I were all
exhausted and agreed it was one of the best show's we've seen in
awhile. Every set brought something new to the table in dance music. It
was somewhat crusie through different genres of electronic music.
To see where these guys are going to be at soon check their sites.
http://vaporeyesdj.com/
http://www.myspace.com/kidcolormusic
http://www.myspace.com/doesitoffendyou
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