Not Dead Yet

Saturday night kicked off the "Now We Are Dead" tour in Toronto - one last blast before Suction Records calls it quits.


Lowfish


Toybreaker and I breaking things


Solvent
[All photos by Basic Sounds]

Saturday was an absolutely great time. Toronto crowds are kind of weird. We were concerned at first because so few people were dancing, but at the same time, we'd never gotten so many compliments. Bethany and I were thanked for our "rowdy set." (Because we danced and drank on stage while playing records? That's par for the course!) Anyway, once we understood the Toronto protocol, it was a total hoot. Solvent and Lowfish played possibly the best live sets I've seen from either of them. Solvent has become a great live performer who commands the stage and engages the audience - something sorely lacking in most live electronic music. You really have to see his cover of Madonna's Hung Up in person. Amazing.

We recorded part of Lowfish's set on my pocket camera. It was too dark to see much of anything in the video, but the audio is really quite good - and Gregory performed two of my very favorites tracks back-to-back. Check it out here. Wicked.

The tour kicks into full swing this Thursday night at Scrummage University in Detroit's Eastern Market. Our good friend David Blunk a.k.a. Stevie will be joining Dethlab on the turntables. We should remind you that Scrummage is a loft, and not a bar, so it's BYOB. Their sound system is way better than most clubs though - plus they have an awesome cat. It's going to be one synth-tastic Thursday night in the D.

Friday night we're all off to Chicago to play at The Empty Bottle. We'll be joined by Chicago's own Mandate for this show. The Empty Bottle is a great room, and we're really looking forward to seeing the Kill Memory Crash boys and all our friends there.

Saturday we head up to Stonefly in Milwaukee. Solvent is the only one among us who's played Milwaukee before, and he insists it's the most enthusiastic crowd anywhere for electronic music. Really looking forward to this one. If the rave kids form Wisconsin I've met at Hawtin parties over the years are any indication, this is going to be a blast. We'll definitely be getting our art on by checking out Calatrava's MAM as well.

We all have to go back to work next week. Solvent and Lowfish do a show in Hamilton Ontario on Friday the 1st of February, then we regroup again with our good friends Travelogue in Cleveland for a show at the Grog Shop on Saturday, Feb 2. I've been playing a lot of Travelogue in our sets lately. I really can't get enough.

And there's more! We're bummed the Montreal show scheduled for last Friday got bumped, but we're working on rescheduling that right now, and we will definitely be playing NYC this spring, and probably another east coast city starting with B.

If you're anywhere in the midwest, we hope to see you very soon!

Cheers from Dethlab and Suction