- The I Love Neon crew are known for bringing the most eclectic artists to their NYE parties: from Digitalism to Steve Bug, their end-of-the-year events are bound to be both effervescent and stylish. Last Sunday’s party did hold up to that reputation but, this time, with added debauchery.
Evening started with Montrealers Thomas Von Party and Jordan Dare, whose set felt like a definite Who’s Who of 2006, playing some of the recent year’s most accomplished landmarks such as ‘Move My Body’ and ‘Waters of Nazareth’. Then Numéro, Québec’s latest electro-pop sensation whose first album (‘L’idéologie des Stars’) is already creating waves on the Francophile blogosphere, took the stage, and their lively performance only served to enhance the more hip hop undertones of their sound (not a bad thing: after all, they are kind of gravitating around Ghislain Poirier’s take on crunk and stuff). In the end, Numéro somehow came across as a male version of Uffie: playful, naïve and possibly irritating to some, but definitely and cheerfully original.
Tommie Sunshine, who you can think of as the unspoken Godfather of the NYC electro scene, then offered an impressive set entirely made of newbies: if these songs are any indication of what 2007 might sound like on the Williamsburg shores, expect electro’s rhythmic squareness combined to a healthy dose of propulsive Italo-like robotic melodies (not unlike the first half of the mix he released on Systematic earlier this year, actually). At some point, even L.A. Style (‘James Brown is Dead’- duh!), LFO (1990’s ‘We Are Back’), and some Altern8 all showed their smiley faces, reminding us old rave is actually the new (and unsurpassed) nü rave (something the sole two kids with their glowsticks didn’t seem to get at all, or probably even cared for). The fact Sunshine himself looks like he just escaped from the Wookie School of Coolness, prancing around with a super hot Olsen twins look-alike that gave the uncanny impression she had just felt out of a MisShapes line-up, only added to the overall sense of euphoria. His two-hour set appropriately ended with Rex the Dog’s ‘Maximize’: Tommie Sunshine’s maximal star did shine tonight.
By the time Boys Noize took the decks for the third times in less than six months in Montreal (him and Sunshine, also back for the third time this year, are slowly becoming permanent fixtures in the town’s electro nightlife, it seems), all calls for common decency were left unanswered, and what followed was the most debauched I Love Neon party I ever attended: guys in CK grey undies (or with no undies nor pants at all, actually) would rub against horny lesbians, creepy dominatrixes, and dangerously drunk barmen. At some point, there was actually more people behind the decks, dancing around (and with) Boys Noize, than on the actual dance floor, which is just proof of the carnavalesque feel of the entire evening. I guess opening a set with Justice’s newbie ‘Phantom’ does that to people. He then followed with what he is best known for: ear-melting electro dipped in fist-pumping indie aesthetics. Therefore, he set didn’t have the sheer what-the-fuck-is-THIS intensity of Sunshine’s, but ended up being a more obvious crowd-pleaser. He finished the whole thing with Montreal’s own Arcade Fire (a happily received ‘Lies’), and I left home, pretty happy, with a horny lesbian and a creepy dominatrix. Yep, it was that kind of evening and, hopefully, a template of things to come in 2007�