Live Acts at VerSus -the only way to go
Author: Kiron Robinson
Wednesday, July 2, 2003
The VS parties have been going for just over a year now. On and of over that time I have been attending and damn, they just seem to be getting better. I say party because by and large that is what they are a really good party put in a club. They don't carry the usual pretensions that club culture contains. A large proportion of the credit for this goes to VS continual commitment to playing live techno. For all of you that don't know, this is the version of techno that is produced by various exponents of the art right there on the spot in front of the public, not the usual DJ type that involves the coordination of someone else's music via a record player. This gives the music a more chaotic, dirty sound that threatens to overwhelm and collapse at the same time. Subsequently the audience is dragged into this push pull atmosphere and well….chaos.
It is not only the commitment to providing live techno that makes this night, it is the quality of the practitioners that play at a VS gig that continually impress. With Bubble and Squeak and Old Des Peres, two of Melbourne's if not the countries best exponents of live techno music, playing at every gig the standard for all other performers is set. They have not on any night that I have been there, let down. The invite list includes Son of Zev, Discopussy, Toupee, Seth Bionic, Speedloader, Spanky, Pixleton and Slieker. It appears that the night has taken on an altruistic slant as well with the first slot of the night being given over to live acts which have not played out before.
I spoke briefly to Old Des from Old Des Peres about this live techno aesthetic.
" yeah we have gone this way because it is what we(Bubble and Squeak and ODP) play but we have found that it allows for way more interaction and spontaneity than Djing could. You can make the music go anyway that you can think of and the crowd can go with it. It also frees the musician up a lot more to not restrict themselves to any particular genre of music instead just play. We call it techno because we need to say something."
" we don't mind DJ's playing but we like to put them between the live acts as a kind of challenge. To see if they can match the sound that they have just experienced and they know is going to come. It pushes them away from playing safe, as the crowd generally won't tolerate it. The live thing also guarantees that you won't hear the same track four times over the night, which seems to be the case at some parties these days."
"we find that it (the live aesthetic) carries over to the other performers, not just the musical ones but the VJ's (excellently done by Devaloid media) and the many performing artists we have at the club. The crowd tends to get confused as to whether the performance art is part of the show or just other people like themselves who like to turn up. It encourages people to come along and get more involved. Breaks down the artist/audience thing. I don't think that it would work as well if we were another DJ night"
VS is next happening on the 5th of July at the Sugar Suite, 189 Lonsdale St, City. They are throwing a five live night with five live acts and two DJ's. Good luck to those two. The line up includes regular live acts Old Des Peres, Bubble & Squeak and Speedloader as well as newcomers Joe Bananas and Red T-Shirt Guy and DJs Van Diemen and Spanky.
Kiron Robinson
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