Pharrell (Fluo Kids), 33Hz, and Alan Braxe at Santos 8/28/08

Alan Braxe at Santos Party House - 8/28/08
This past Thursday night at Santos was one of the most fun nights out I've had in a while. The vibe at Santos was great. Got their early to beat the cover. It was already pretty full and people were merrily grooving to Pharrell's (from French electronic music blog Fluo Kids) excellent set that was a melodic blend of more groovy house/slightly discoey jams than I expected - really a great set.

33Hz went on close to 12:30, and as much as I hate to say it - it was not one of their best sets. They opened with one of my favorite tracks - "Crazy All the Time" and it took me a moment to notice because it sounded totally different - as did all of the tracks, because they added some robotic vocal effect to ALL the vocals for the entire show. It just sounded bad and drowned out/took away from everything else good that the band was doing.

A little before 1:30 Alan Braxe went on. The past couple of times I've seen him over the past year I didn't have the greatest time. The first was more my issue, and the second time the set just wasn't doing it for me. Alan's set at Santos Thursday made up for any shortcomings of the past two. French fire from beginning to end - a perfect balance of classic and updated French house with tasteful hints of electro. It was a blissful set. Can't remember too many specifics of what he dropped other than his & Fred Falke's remix of "Bossy" by Kelis, teased with "Music Sounds Better With You", Lumberjack by Alan Braxe & Kris Menace, and the banging ending of his set which consisted of Soulwax's "E Talking" into "Hung Down" by the Presets. The whole time Alan was really into the set, clapping, smiling, etc and the crowd gave it right back. Another night of serious fun.