Last Night, Leif and I traveled to The Rave in Milwaukee for MSTRKRFT. MSTRKRFT were pretty damn amazing, and La Doche Vita were pretty awesome, too. But, The Rave is a fucking pit. A dank disgusting disease ridden shithole that I will genuinely need to reconsider visiting.
It was pretty great seeing a vast amount of actual electronic music fans at this event. The past couple times that I've been to The Rave definitely had fans of the music, but it really wasn't Milwaukee's scene. Milwaukee has greater roots in Metal and Punk, rather than a bunch of raver kids. Minneapolis and Chicago are the real hubs around here for that kind of music. Maybe that scene traveled from somewhere else into Milwaukee tonight for MSTRKRFT?
Though, additionally, MSTRKRFT and Electro House music generally garners a different crowd than the music that introduced me into Electronica. The Electro House genre is pretty new and is still exploding with new talent every year. With its arrival brings a new generation of kids into the electronic music sub-genre and sparks it with the energy of youth. The general age of the crowd was kinda young. Much younger than the crowd for The Crystal Method a couple months ago.
That endless amount of youthful energy feeds from the powerful charge of Electro.
These guys continue to push and develop the genre how they see fit. MSTRKRFT are the ones basically writing the definition of Electro House. It's amazing how most other Electro DJs follow in their footsteps, but are still one or two steps behind. MSTRKRFT keep a distinct sound for themselves that completely sets them apart from the rest.
I was confused about when they were going to perform. When we arrived, it looked like JFK (Jesse F. Keeler of MSTRKRFT) was already up on stage with another dude.. Once they finished, and after La Doche Vita performed, fucking DJ Funk took the stage and completely ruined the vibe. Is DJ Funk a legitimate DJ? or a mock DJ? I couldn't tell if it was a joke.. Leif and I left the room and went to the other area with some locals spinnin' songs. After a little while, we checked the main room again, and they were on stage, huzzah.
It was pretty incredible. I'm not very current on Electro at all, but when it's on, it's on. They played some amazing songs including one of my favorites, "D.A.N.C.E" by Justice, which I captured some on video..
Right before DJ Funk nearly ruined the evening, La Doche Vita performed a pretty great set themselves. They mentioned they're originally from Milwaukee, but got their start down in Chicago. They are a very young duo having only formed in 2008, but since then, have made some incredible remixes of The Faint, The Prodigy, Femme Fatality.. They have a couple of these remixes available on their MySpace page.
Their set consisted heavily of these types of remixes. Leif was able to pick out Smashing Pumpkins, Radiohead, The Prodigy.. One of my favorite songs of the night was a remix of The Prodigy's "Smack my Bitch up" set against Deadmau5's "Ghosts 'n Stuff". I got some video of that, too...
I'm pretty sure they were dead-set on playing that song when they noticed one of the dudes in the crowd wearing the Deadmau5 mask.
For the past couple of years now, living in Madison and visiting Minneapolis and Chicago regularly, it's been incredibly pleasant thanks to the Smoking Ban. Cigarette smoke had never bothered me to the point of rioting, but it's subtle benefits are great. My clothes aren't disgusting the next day and the air inside those bars and clubs are quite clean and occasionally refreshing.
The Smoking Ban has been yet to extend itself to Milwaukee, or at least this part of Milwaukee. It's never been a problem for me before. But my throat has been screwed up from food poisoning earlier this week and hadn't fully healed, yet. Obviously yelling really loud wasn't a good idea, but with everyone smoking as if they needed it to live, the polluted air was extra damaging. My voice is pretty screwed up today.
Also, on the way home, I started feeling some pain in my left eye. It was really annoying, and made me tear profusely. It wasn't particular painful. It just felt like something was stuck in my eye. When I got home, my eye was a little puffy. That's happened before.. nothing new there. I just went to bed. This morning my eye was inflamed. It had fuse shut with all the gunk it excreted throughout the night. It looked pretty gross. A quick search of the symptoms and yep, I have pink eye.
How the hell do you get Pink Eye from going to a concert? Especially when I hadn't touched a single thing inside the place at all. Some website mentioned "sensitivity to light" being a cause. Could a constant bright strobe light pointed at my face cause my eye to burst out in Pink Eye? I've been going to clubs and concerts for years with like setups, and this has never happened.
Fucking diseased, smoke ridden venue... Never again!