THIS is all a fashion show. A place to see and be seen, no doubt. I wasn’t aware the line outside the Echoplex on Tuesday, March 29 was this year’s Dior Spring 2011 runway, but lucky me I had a ticket. The show was headlined by Salem, creators of the bass-extending genre Witchhouse, though the hit of the night was the preceding group Light Asylum, a set equally tripping in laser light visuals and subsequent mesmerization by vocalist, keyboardist, and percussionist Shannon Funchess.
The vibe was cool and the girls were hot, but nobody was dancing. How could you to a bass slowed 200x a normal frequency? A freeze-frame pantomime I suppose, but here goes the epic head nodding. As the event was located in Silverlake, a detachment from the neighboring Hollywood scene surged as witty banter and eclectic personalities ruled the streets.This side of town remains an enigma to me, though I feel more at home with each visit amongst the ever-present 20-somethings dancing to their own offbeat drums.
A surreal dreamstate sustained the entire show; the fog and schizophrenic bouts of fluorescent lights gave a Vesuvian effect as the tracks blended under the hum of haunting vocals from Red Wing jerseyed Heather and shawl wearing Jack, the culminating buzz coming through hat and hair in mumbled raps by John. The show ended as it existed--as if played from the backstage manager’s IPod--while the group vanished behind the smokescreen as the beat droned on. This is the sought-after aesthetic, the don’t-give-a-fuck drugged out candor akin to The Velvet Underground. You can’t leave the show without having questions, concerns, and opinions about what exactly just happened--something between a mindgasm and total body meltdown. You also couldn’t have left the show without spotting horror-core rap phenom Tyler, the Creator of OFWGKTA ordering hot dogs, extra ketchup as he cruised out in a murdered out Benz.
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