Simian Mobile Disco, The Fiery Furnaces, Dark Meat, The Neatherlands @ The Pool Parties 8/09/09

I’ve been a fan of SMD for quite a while. Back before electro and indie dance merged to become fidget they had a part in creating some nice, rolling anthems, the most famous of which is probably Simian vs. Justice’s ubiquitous “We Are Your Friends” a song that was tragically inescapable and whose popularity became something of an in-joke for my DC rave friends.

What really made my group of friends take notice was the mix they did back in 2006 for NME when NME was trying to push their whole new rave movement. The music was really fun and exciting and largely new to us as DC dance culture wasn’t really…adventurous. It was a small market that was getting smaller for an audience that didn’t really seem to appreciate risk. An evening of dance was a warm comforting blanket and social event rather than a chance to try things out. Repetitive beats and repetitive events.

Thankfully, PA is just two hours away and New York, four, so those of us who wanted something a bit more, could go out and get it. So, we did when Simian Mobile Disco came to PA in early 2007. It was all electro / indie dance / protofidget anthems but we didn’t care, because it was loud and it was fun and it was what we loved at that moment and no one else was doing it in DC.

I have a lot of love for SMD and was really excited to see them again. It had been a while since they were even on my radar, so I was really curious as to what they’d be playing, of all the genres, I didn’t expect it to be pretty much just straight banging techno.

The weather was once again an oppressive humid summer heat sapping your strength and soaking your shirt minutes after leaving the house. We gear up, head out and arrive in time to catch the first act of the day, The Netherlands.



You can see from yesterday’s review that I liked them. Timo Ellis, the singer/ guitarist used a Health like bank of effects pedals to put his wonderful chunky psyche doom while Hannah Moorhead’s bass and keyboard filled the walls with equal presence as Japa Keenon O’s drumming was able to plug into a variety of styles. Do yourself the favor and check them out. The Pool Parties didn’t sound like the best venue for them, as they indicated they tend to use more psych lighting and their style of dress and sound was far better suited to a club rather than mid-afternoon in the sun. It doesn’t matter because the music was awesome regardless.



Didn’t know anything about Dark Meat, but a quick peek at their MySpace page showed active members as 19 and the quick snippets that I listened to put me in the “this sounds like it’s going to be some hippy jam band bullshit,” one of the few genres which I cannot get into despite repeated attempts. Seeing them set up in face and body paint with full horn section, two different organs and multiple percussionists put the fear of Phish into me.



What actually came from the speakers was wild discordant noise that sounded half- structured and half-improvised but fast and wild as a bad idea and just as infectious. The songs were about “a fucked up bloody white guy I saw last night” “how our entire band is on drugs” and I couldn’t quite get the measure of them before they had spun out of control. There was a gentle moment when Sutra Streamers were they carried to the crowd enveloping people up in bright colorful paper, some voluntarily, others not and this was shattered when the song’s power slowly escalated back to full banging mania like having a conversation about politics on the internet, civil and laid back until at the end everything was smashed and destroyed and then… exhausted, the band carried themselves off stage.





I’m not super familiar with The Fiery Furnaces, but what I’d heard wasn’t unenjoyable. Clever lyrics and music that seemed a bit twee for my tastes. Friends told me that when they perform it could be unpredictable with what you’ll actually get. What we got was a four piece sans keyboard and pretty straightforward arrangements and a set list with songs predominately all from the new album or at least unfamiliar to the people I was with.



Simian Mobile Disco opened up with a reworking of an Animal Collective song and from there spent the next hour and a half that we stayed with wall to wall banging techno. It was great, but it was really exhausting to listen to as there was really nothing much more beyond huge synthlines and expanded kicks and bass. I loved it but I couldn’t take too much of it without wishing for something a bit more to break it up a bit, but the audience loved it and members from Dark Meat came on stage with a trombone and trumpet and played into the microphone so we had a mix of analog and digital entertainment. The set up was three pioneer CDJs and two mixers, so there was no Ableton tomfoolery there, which is a shame because I think it would work well with all of their various musical interests.







I think I was in the minority for this because everyone that came out had an absolute blast and danced despite the horrid heat. The crowd found the group strength to hoist up a Sousaphone player and have him crowd surf while playing. I left happy with what I’d heard and eager to hear where they go in the future.