The current dance culture climate these days seems to be dominated by continuous tear-your-face-off bangers; be it the dirtiest, filthiest, rumbling slow tempo dubstep or hard hitting, face scrunching uptempo electro. Sometimes it's nice to take a departure from that and find a happy medium in mid-tempo laid back retro-style dance grooves. Thanks to the work of Souls In Action Entertainment, the Larimer Lounge was turned into a discotheque last night, where each performer came on stage and spun some smooth, crowd pleasing disco-house beats. It was a refreshing night of fluid music - upbeat and always danceable but never stretched to an auditory extreme.

Boyhollow switching it up

Boyhollow was the first to take a spot behind the decks, and like any good DJ, he showed off his flexibility and his foresight in anticipating his audience's expectations. Those familiar with Boyhollow may have been a little thrown off, as this resident Lipgloss DJ is known for heart-pounding sets that steadily increase in musical intensity, using his song selection to raise the temperature so high that the crowd comes to a full on boil. But tonight was a different story - Boyhollow was the first act up and his job was to set the tone for the next two purveyors of smooth electronic nu-disco. Song selection wise, he did an impeccable job, shelving the womp for one night and digging up some old disco tracks, blending them with smooth house, and sprinkling in a bit of indie electro. I especially enjoyed his inclusion of a remix of The Weeknd's "Rolling Stone", a remix of Klaxon's "It's Not Over Yet", Breakbot's "Shades of Black", and seventies disco staple Cerrone's "Give Me Love". I was impressed with Boyhollow's versatility, and if you want a dose of his regular mixing style, check him out tonight or most Friday nights at his usual roost at Lipgloss.

Steffi Graf

Next up was the DJ duo Steffi Graf and they kept the smooth theme going by lacing together their signature blend of old disco songs, new electronic house beats, some vintage house ala early Mushroom Jazz, and a healthy helping of movie samples. As soon as Steffi Graf started mixing, they got the people on the dance floor moving like a late-seventies disco-centric episode of Soul Train. Latane Hughes and Antone Proler are expert diggers, finding the most obscure tracks and blending them in such an infectious way that the music seems familiar and thus easy to dance to, but nobody can quite put a finger exactly on what they are hearing. I did manage to pick out a couple standouts - a retro styled remix of Daft Punk's "Around the World" and a disco overdrive remix of Breakbot's "Fantasy". EDIT: For clarification, Steffi Graff did not play Mushroom Jazz, but some of the house beats they were dropping kind of reminded me of it. Also, apparently they did not play any Breakbot in their set, but Breakbot did get a lot of love!

Classixx and compact discs

Not ones to interrupt a party, Classixx jumped behind the decks and mixed seamlessly out of Steffi Graff's set and into a smooth mix of their own. Classixx kept the theme going, holding on to that throwback disco style and blending in some silky house tracks. I found it interesting that these guys mixed using CDs, I haven't seen a big name DJ mix purely with CDs since Mark Farina. To me, it added a bit of authenticity to their throwback style, abandoning the aid of a computer based mixing platform. Vinyl would've been too typical, the only way they could have mixed any hipper would have been to use Minidiscs.

Classixx going all night long

Being a DJ set, Classixx mixed in a blend of their influences and favorites of the moment all while building up to dropping in their original hits that the audience craved. Michael David and Tyler Blake waited well into their lengthy set before they dropped their signature track "I'll Get You", and it wasn't until the end of the night that people had the chance to get crazy to "Into The Valley". Other standouts in their mix were Mylo's "Otto's Journey", Madonna's "Lucky Star" and an incredible remix of Michael Jackson's "Thriller". Breakbot got love from all three performers last night, as Classixx laid down a remix of "Fantasy". Dance aficionados had a hard time keeping still last night, and Classixx weren't willing to give up the decks and stop the flow easily, as they played until the clock struck two o'clock in the morning and it was time for the Larimer Lounge to shutdown and for those on the floor to reluctantly clear out.

It seems if you see "Souls In Action presents" on the flyer it's like a veritable seal of approval that whatever event they are putting on, it'll be a killer dance party. They seem to know which hot electronic dance music acts to bring in on any given night, and tonight was certainly no exception. My only complaint is many missed out on Boyhollow's quality set. I don't know what it is, but it seems like there is an outright refusal from many people to catch the opening act at the Larimer Lounge, even if the one on the beginning of the bill is a notable and well-regarded local favorite. Otherwise, once the crowd got involved, the party didn't stop until it was forced to.

See more pictures from the show in the Facebook gallery. Don't forget to give the Concerted Effort page a 'like'!