Off Broadway hosted DJ London Calling and Innerpartysystem Tuesday, March 8.
The dreary weather and inconvenient 9 p.m. start time on a Tuesday night both led to a very small crowd. The small, smoking-free, rickety building on Lemp Ave. was nearly empty when I arrived at about 30 minutes prior to the show starting.
I paid the $10 ticket fee, entered and sat in the upper level of the venue waiting for the show to begin.
At about 9:20 someone began to DJ without announcing his name or even acknowledging the crowd. He simply stood on stage with his Mac and turntables and danced a little while pushing buttons on said equipment. It took my friends and I awhile to even realize that this was London Calling.
Around 10:15, Innerpartysystem entered the stage and opened with one of their techno-electronica songs off their new EP. The audience had grown by this time, but was still fairly small. The singer, Patrick Nissley didn’t talk much but this was fitting due to the club-like atmosphere of the night.
Each song was accompanied by a blinding array of lights that flashed in time with the 808-dubstep-and any other heavy bass sounds. Fog had filled the room making the lights even more dramatic. It seemed as if it was almost a light show accompanied by music instead of the other way around.
When the band played their most popular song, “Don’t Stop,” the group kicked it up a notch. Nissley screamed much of the last verse and the volume seemed to increase ten-fold.
The show ended with, “American Trash,” another hit off their newest EP. The crowd finally started getting into the music. Looking across the audience I could see everyone bobbing their heads in time to the uber-loud bass pumping out of the speakers.
The concert was over by 11 p.m, and the singer signed some posters and chatted with the fans who stuck around after the show.
Overall, it was a good show sound-wise, however Innerpartysystem didn’t play for very long and the crowd interaction was minimal. There was very little advertising for the show too, which led to a small crowd turnout. Had they booked a show at the Firebird instead, I think the show would have had a much better turnout.
