The I Love Neon crew has the habit of bringing the coolest names from the electro underworld to Montreal (Steve Bug, Hell, Martini Bros, Vitalic, etc.), and their New Year’s Eve parties are usually the stuff of legendary debauchery (yours truly having particularly fond memories of the Tommie Sunshine/Boys Noize diptych from last year). This year’s edition of their end-of-the-year celebrations was just as striking, especially with such a sundry and explosive line-up. But at the same time, unfortunately, it was a bit foreseeable too, mostly because it was so faithful to what this city's clubbers witnessed all over 2007: the slow, assured surge of the nü-rave brigades.
See, the past twelve months have seen the Daft Spunk followers, Homo After All emulators and “Robot Cock” worshippers (in other words, it’s pretty much all very exuberant, brightly colored, and gaudy) taking over the Montreal underground clubbing scene. Lately, more proper techno-oriented and “mature” events with the likes of Damian Lazarus, Dusty Kid, Stephan Bodzin or Paul Kalkbrenner were received with an air of indifference while MSTRKRFT, the Ed Banger horde and the aforementioned Boys Noize (who has an unofficial residency in every club in town these days, apparently) are ruling the (overcrowded?) electro kingdom.
That doesn’t mean it doesn’t make for moments of über-coolness though. Having, for instance, Crystal Castles shouting their dissonant way through the midnight countdown might sound counterintuitive, but it truly isn’t. 'Airwar', their current single, is even more incendiary in its live format, and it’s hard to think of anything more fitting than war-like alarm sounds welcoming you into 2008 while heavily intoxicated. In the next room, the Peer Pressure and Nu Ravers on the Block posse (Quebec’s own Bang Gang Deejays, if you’d like) were operating their familiar yet still effective mashed-up magic, telescoping house’s own celebratory classics such as 'Pump Up the Jam' with current scenester favorites from Yelle, Surkin, Yuksek and Brodinski. Sadly, main attractions Guns N Bombs and newcomer Curses!, on the other hand, were – pun intended – cursed by awkward mixing techniques and skipping cuts. Although stellar beat-matching has never been nü-rave’s strongest selling point, both acts sounded (at least to the ears of the sweetest, cutest and most charming Mr. Oizo fan I have ever met and his drunken and heartbroken art history student friend I was partying with) amateurish, predictable and unnecessarily uproarious, which are not the standards the Neon events are usually known for.
In the end, I guess you could see this year’s I Love Neon NYE party as nü-rave’s very own swan song or, at the very least, the beginning of the end of an intense yet short-lived relationship. We met two years ago, had a raunchy secret affair, learned to really appreciate each other in 2006 and then went shamelessly public the past year, making out in front of everyone like there was no tomorrow. But these days, nü-rave and I are looking at each other like an old couple that has nothing new to say to one another anymore – and it's just getting uncomfortable for everyone else. Hearts were on fire at some point; nowadays, though, as soon as I go hard, I go home.
Photo credit: Laura, The friendattack