Friday, August 31, 2007

Cheers for Louisville Asian Dance Rock AKA VHS or Beta

VHS or Beta; Walter Meego; Team Robespierre
@ Studio B
Brooklyn, NY - August 30, 2007

Boy if I had a nickel for every Louisville, Kentucky-based dance-rock band led by an Asian-American...
VHS or Beta has had some bad hairdo's. But they cut those messes down en route to their first full fledged Brooklyn show. And it was a show that revealed the best and worst of the club-beat sub-genre of rock n' roll. It was plenty of good-time rockin' dance beats but the laptop which the drummer used went on the fritz and the show had to stop. At the second stoppage, with the crowd getting restless, I hightailed it out of there but not before catching "Can't Believe A Single Word":

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1076/1283337204_2230e5dba8.jpg
More Photos Here
Walter Meego was the straight up club act of the night, mixing the Pet Shop Boys with rave/techno and typical club music. When they leaned towards the first element, they were pretty solid but overall - as is par for the course with club music - it got tiring pretty quickly. More importantly, the Meego gang are from Chicago, adding the dance-rock element for what appears to be a growing eclectic Windy City scene.

Team Robespierre are named after one of the most intriguing and compelling figures in world history. The band's music, however, is slightly less compelling. A hardcore punk band with rapid club and electro beats behind them, Team R is probably considered art-punk in some Brooklyn circles but really it's just a bunch of noise. That doesn't mean it's bad, it's just not for everyone. But one word to the moshing hipsters: Take off your backpack when you mosh, you muppets!

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