At first glance, The Southern seems the least likely Charlottesville venue to hold an ear-shattering dubstep concert. Settled on First St. right off the Downtown Mall, this small music hall is a hotspot for indie, folk and even hip-hop performances. But last Wednesday night The Southern hosted two popular groups of an eclectic music genre: Michal Menert of Pretty Lights and Odesza.
Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight of Odesza first took the stage, performing for no more than 70 already excessively inebriated fans who more than made up in energy what they lacked in numbers.
With the flip of a few buttons, the Odesza duo set to work enchanting the crowd, flawlessly manipulating every fluid rhythm, shrill vocal and relentless beat. Before long I found myself immersed in a sea of swaying, sweating bodies and banging heads.
The group opened with “Without You,” a track off of its latest album “My Friends Never Die.” The song included soft opening chords behind an echoing rendition of Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” and expertly incorporated a succession of (comparatively) gentle beat drops. I found myself lost in the frenzy, for a moment even shamelessly raising my fist to (a) flaunt my bright red wristband that practically screamed, “I’m the only one here under 21!” and (b) channel the music from the surrounding atmosphere into my very soul. I only succeeded at the former.
One song blurred into the next and Mills’ and Knight’s conducting never faltered — though I admit I would not have noticed it had. By the time they wrapped up their performance with “Summer’s Gone,” the two performers had drained their drinks and the members of the audience lucky enough to have green wristbands were lining up to refill their own.
Following a speedy transition, Michal Menert took the stage, donning a black fedora over his shoulder-length hair as he forewent traditional introductions and instead blasted heavy beats and spine-tingling drops to liven the crowd. The atmosphere was nothing short of epileptic. What was once a subdued swaying and rocking among audience members turned into spasmodic writhing and I feared that one or more of my neighbors would either pull a muscle or break a spinal cord.
Menert’s music is defined by a combination of Eastern and Western elements, a hybrid genre influenced by the artist’s childhood in Kielce, Poland. This motley perspective contributes significantly to the creativity behind his most recent album, “Even If It Isn’t Right.”
For the average observer, discerning individual songs was extremely difficult if not impossible. A nearly uninterrupted stream of songs was unleashed in the course of a couple of hours. From “Hi” to “Exodus” to “Sky City,” the pattern was the same: Menert would conduct, step back, mouth the words to the spoken intervals, and madly shake his head. It wasn’t until the third — or was it still the first? — song that I realized these electronic rhythms were accompanied by nearly inaudible drums on stage right.
The Pretty Lights artist connected with the audience only once, referring to the poor weather as part of an introduction to “After the Rain.” But his passion for his work shone through regardless, and I left the concert with a ringing in my ears and a newfound respect for the electro music industry.
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