MSTRKRFT at Studio B 10/19/07

Just got home from MSTRKRFT at Studio B (this was written around 4am on Friday night/Saturday morning). My main dilemmas this evening were:

1. Go to the Modular party at 200 Orchard, followed by MSTRKRFT at Studio B
2. Just go to MRTRKRFT
3. Do nothing b/c CMJ is kicking my ass!!

As tempted as I was by #3, and as much as I wanted to see Muscles at the Modular party...I wound up just going straight to Studio B to catch MSTRKRFT. Almost the instant I got in there I felt dread/regret. It was packed and boiling hot. To top it off my new music twin Paul texted me from the Modular party, letting my know that Erol Alkan was getting down right in front of him. Meanwhile I am at Studio B watching Z-trip among throngs of drunk people in what was essentially a sauna.

Overall...I was not too fond of Z-trip. He basically took all these pop songs (some of the better ones) of the past 15 years...and either fucked around with them, or mashed them up. It was kind of novel, but I was not really feeling it, mainly because the songs he chose were the ones that seem really good to sing along to when you are completely wasted aka Rush's Tom Sawyer among other things. I had completely convinced myself I had no use for Z-trip as I was waiting at the bar...but then all of sudden the Chemical Brothers' Block Rockin Beats was playing...and there was an actual drummer drumming! My joy was cut short though as he mashed it into another track and any trace of Chems was lost too quickly. In conclusion...I respect what the dude was doing, I just didn't particularly enjoy it.

I was hoping that the throngs of people that were there were the Z-trip fan club and that once he was done the place would clear out. Apparently everyone there had some clue though and the crowd was consistently huge for most of MSTRKRFT's set. Honestly...only at the very end of their set, as I was walking out the door, did it seem like a normal sized Studio B crowd. Up until then it was bordering on ridiculous and really full.

Anyway...MSTRKRFT absolutely killed it. I don't know where to begin. Let me say straight away I have never seen MSTRKRFT live before and have only heard a handful of their remixes. I think the only reason I ever checked them out was b/c I kept reading about them, and then Eddie saw them in Montreal and told me they were pretty dope. They played alot of newer stuff that I knew, and a lot of stuff I had no idea about, but banged regardless. One highlight in particular - Digitalism's Jupiter Room into Soulwax's Miserable Girl. Sick! This is also an opportune time to mention...it's kind of awesome/surreal when you are seeing a dj somewhere and he drops a track you have seen performed by the actual original band at the same venue you are in at the time.

It was so crowded initially and hot, that I was just kind of chilling near the railing towards the right of the dj booth. That would have been fine under normal circumstances, except MSTRKRFT were set up on the stage, which made me really far away. After a while I relocated and found a little pocket of people that wasn't so crowded up in front towards the right of MSTRKRFT. Once I secured a good spot that wasn't too crowded and hot I was having a great time. It was such a tight, bang-centric set. And it flew by. It was just great. They played a remix of the Chemical Brothers' Salmon Dance which cracked me up. When We Are the Night Came Out I absolutely was not into that song and couldn't understand why it was on the album. Somehow it grew on me though and the remixes are sick. I was just amused that i hated it initially, but now whenever I hear it played out somewhere I get all psyched. Other song I have been hearing a lot of lately that MSTRKRFT played: Music Sounds Better With You. Ah, good times. I tried to get some bearable pics and video. I think I might upgrade from my shitty cellphone pics, to shitty digital camera pics soon.

Check it: