See the full 35-photo Sleigh Bells and Diplo at Grand Central slideshow.
Diplo, Sleigh Bells, and Liturgy
Grand Central Miami
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Better Than: A Valentine's Day spent home alone, dancing with yourself to Diplo.
On Valentine's Day 2012, highly manicured young (and then some) adults swarmed like ants to honey on a countertop for the Miami edition of mega-DJ Diplo's Paradise Lost tour with Sleigh Bells and Liturgy at Grand Central.
For almost a decade, the producer and prolific partysmith has been providing coiffed hipsters with a soundtrack for their lust and expressions thereof. And last night, Miami supplied the eros-laden visuals.
Grand Central can be a hard room to look full, even when turnout is decent. But as early as openers Liturgy, the club was already packed, the floor was already slippery with sweat, and a perceptible thickness hung in the air as though it were August and we were all chilling in a Target parking lot at 3 p.m..
Never mind the humidity or the love-themed holiday, black metal trio Liturgy came to shred! Or did they? Once a three-piece with a big mouth, the ensemble has been reduced to a duo with a drum machine, and we can't say the gabba-style percussion is doing much for the transcendental black metal cause. We appreciate the eclecticness inherent to Liturgy opening this kind of show and even think it makes more sense in light of their embracing synthetic drums. But in terms of the band's progression unto itself: kinda whack.
While we're not entirely sure we completely enjoy the end result, Sleigh Bells perform a genre mishmash so earnestly bewildering that we're not entirely sure what genre it is, or if there is any precedent for this sound in the history of music. Maybe we'll just call it "The Internet" or "2012." They sound like the precise intersection of Rage Against The Machine, Le Tigre and Skrillex-era bass drops. What? Add in full-blown rock-n-roll band stage presence and a blinding rave-like light show and we'll even add italics. What?
Diplo's a pro. So he knew better than to let the crowd cool down after Sleigh Bells, and jumped right into his set very soon theirs ended. A mere moments before, a sweaty stream of people poured out onto Grand Central's patio trying to get a breath of fresh air (the dance floor was essentially a sauna) but the second the first bass-y, Carribean-tinged beats started dropping, so did the booties.
Personal Bias: Normally we spend V-Day under our bedsheets with the windows shuttered, but yesterday our horoscope told us we might find true love at an electro-metal concert.
Random Detail: We'd guess that more people make-out at Diplo shows than any other in North America.
The Crowd: Club kids, norm bros on the prowl, gussied-up honeys in heels, rich-looking smell-goods, hipster guidos, guides
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