ON THE FLOOR
Finger on the Pulse A
s a longtime Colorado resident who recently returned from a summer in Ibiza, the idea of a festival geared towards underground fans in Denver, even with the Sonar name behind
it, is a bit unsettling. Sure, electronic music has exploded over the last few years. You can hear it at bars, college campus dorm rooms and cars passing you on the way to get your morning coffee. But that boom has been the direct result of artists like Skrillex and Swedish House Mafia, who are almost guaranteed to sell out arenas and stadiums around the States. So the fear that we might show up to the Ogden Theater and see Paul Kalkbrenner or Tiga playing for five people in a big, empty theater is palpable, because as much as every city needs a bit of a musical education from time to time, lessons don’t always sell tickets. Little did we realize just how much had changed in the months we’d been gone.
We hear Die Antwoord had sold out the Ogden Theater when they visited a few months earlier, but as Sonar is more related to house and techno, we are rather surprised when the sign outside is listed as ‘Die Antwoord and Guests’. We make our way inside around 7.15pm, 45 minutes after the show’s start time, expecting the first DJ to be well into his set but only creepy ambient leaks out of the PA system as ghoulish stock visuals creep along the giant LED screen in front of us and more and more concert goers slowly meander into a half packed house.
Around 7.30pm Gesaffelstein makes his way out, cigarette hanging lazily out of his mouth, and gets right down to business. He begins expectedly enough with a relaxed, low-slung mix of funky bass and acid builders, but the Frenchman quickly heads into faster, more industrial territory as the crowd began to fill in. Keeping things strong and banging with tracks like
042
Barcelona’s famous Sonar festival recently set off on its debut tour of the US. But how did it fare when it arrived in Denver?
‘Shake’ by Cowboy Rhythmbox, he makes fantastic use of the FX, creating huge, washed out risers, teasing us for what seems like an eternity before finally unleashing some of the biggest drops of the night. Though most of the crowd simply bob and groove in the early evening, one man, sporting what appears to be a gold tunic and a welding mask, jumps up and down as hard as he can, bicycling his arms around and spinning in circles, clearly not needing to get warmed up at 8pm on a Wednesday night.
Next up is German superstar Paul Kalkbrenner, though the need to switch equipment around from DJ to live set makes for a lengthy changeover. Luckily, if you want to head outside and cool off or have a smoke, a large truck fitted with high-powered speakers pumps out energetic tech and progressive house to keep the party going. When Kalkbrenner does finally take to the stage for his live set, he rides Gesaffelstein’s vibe well, with dark, driving techno, layered over atmospheric melodies fluttering just behind the driving bass. About halfway through his set, he heads into slower, more melodic territory with tracks like his own remix of ‘La Mezcla’ by Michel Cleis, which the now packed crowd is well up for, whistling and cheering over the Latin vocals. One of our favorite things about watching Kalkbrenner is his obvious passion for what he does. Always smiling, highly animated and hardly able to contain himself, he dances like a kid at a rave as he weaves his way through tracks like ‘Kleines Bubu’, ‘Sky and Sand’ and ‘Aaron’.
Azari & III are up next and we’re not sure if the Denver crowd are ready for what this eccentric Canadian live act have to offer, but the group’s choreographed, effeminate dance moves and high energy screams and shouts snap the crowd into a frenzy. They kick things off with a bang, heading straight into their 2009 hit,
www.djmag.com Paul Kalkbrenner
‘Hungry For The Power’, the song that helped rocket both them and subsequent remixer Jamie Jones into stardom. From there, they head into tracks like the ever-popular ‘Manic’ and ‘Reckless With Your Love’, always urging Denver on as they go.
It’s then time for the main act as Cape Town’s rave-rap duo Die Antwoord get ready to take the stage. The group’s logo appears on the LED screen and the crowd instantly cheer and tighten up in anticipation, the smell of high-grade marijuana seeping from every corner of the theater. Suddenly, Ninja and Yo-Landi Vi$$er come bursting onto the stage with the most commanding presence of the night, the two decked out in matching baggy, orange sweat suits with Die Antwoord logos on their backs, their muscle-bound, shirtless DJ behind
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