One of the latest and greatest things to happen to the Denver dance scene took place this past weekend and it had all the right ingredients to make for an epic dance party. Lipgloss founder boyhollow brought to town a party that's already taken New York and Chicago by storm: Girls & Boys. The first Girls & Boys Denver party included eight impressive DJ acts - four locals and four imports - and a spellbinding light show. There was non-stop music going on the entire night, and it made for a marathon dance fest for those that could handle it.
It wasn't enough for Girls & Boys Denver to feature some big national and international DJ names, it had to start with local representation. The party began early and I missed the DJ set from opener Spencer Flower, but I still got to see three more local purveyors of dance. I arrived shortly after eight o'clock, and local DJ duo Fidget Factory was up on stage throwing down a heavy electro mix. Fidget Factory's mixing style uses hard electro beats, splashes of womp, and clever dashes of remixed and mashed up songs. I like how in between a section of electro songs, they brought out a remix of Kelis' "Milkshake" mashed up with an instrumental of The Game's "How We Do", making a song that was pure club on so many levels. They got the early crowd's heart rate racing and served as a good warm up for the hours of dance still ahead.
Next on stage was another local DJ two-piece, London Dungeon. London Dungeon started throwing down a mix that had more nu-disco house and dance-funk, getting everyone into a smooth groove. It was a good transition from the earlier set, because if they kept the intensity just as high as the previous act it probably would have wore out the crowd. Instead, their set was at the perfect mid-tempo, bringing back retro '70s and '80s dance sounds wrapped around modern dance textures. I really liked their song selection, giving everything a sort of retro feel, even with newer songs like YACHT's "Dystopia" and CSS's "Hit's Me Like A Rock" - the remixes they played were hot. After a nice discotheque session, London Dungeon handed the decks over to one more local maestro.
Not only did he present the show, but boyhollow had to throw down a set as well. It's obvious boyhollow has a passion for making people dance when he's so heavily involved in the parties he presents. For this evening, boyhollow threw down a mix in his characteristic eclectic style, drawing from music across genres to propagate more dance energy to the floor. Showing an ability to carefully and steadily build up crowd energy, boyhollow started with milder mid-tempo house tracks like Cassius' "The Sound of Violence" and built up the intensity until he was slamming the crowd with a little womp and hard electro like Skream's remix of "In For The Kill" by La Roux.
Paul Anthony took over the reigns next, the first imported artist of the show. He brought his Chicago house experience and Dirty Fabric record label swagger to the dance floor. Lately, Paul Anthony has been churning out electro jams and remixes one after the other, and he brought much of his production work to the decks Saturday night. Using just CD tables and a mixer, Paul Anthony brought face melting electro and hard house to the hapless Denver crowd. My favorite track had to be the remix of Laid Back's "White Horse" he threw down.
By this point of the night, people were starting to file in and take up the dance floor, and that's just when things started to get visually interesting as well. Girls & Boys Denver featured a laser display that continued to get more elaborate and amazing as the night went on. It started with a few lasers during boyhollow's and Paul Anthony's set, impressive but not much beyond the standard fare, but once the international acts of the Kitsuné Club Night Tour started to throw down, the laser light show got absolutely ridiculous.
Brazilian DJ duo Database went up on stage next, bringing a crazy blend of electro house - crazy because they remix so many songs that are from outside of the electro realm. They upped the tempo and started to get the crowd sweating as people tried to keep up with one hard mix after the other. My favorite tracks were their electro mix of Stardust's "Music Sounds Better With You", bringing an old favorite back to life with a bang, and they included an electro favorite of mine, "Neon Nights" by MSTRKRFT. When Database was on stage, the party was definitely in full effect, and it only continued to get better from there.
BeatauCue took the stage next, bringing their French electro house sound to Denver. They take hard electro to a new level using crazy tweaked and glitchy sounds, hard thumping bass, and souped up tempos to get dancers going wild. Their sound worked perfectly with the laser display, each high pitched burst hitting my ear drums just as synchronized flashes of colored light dazzled my eyes. They kept their set high energy, but the song that stood out was the song "Close" from their Falcon Punch EP.
From there it was up to headliners RAC to finish the night and smack the audiences' ears with songs remixed and re-imagined in creative ways. Using two laptops and an array of Ableton controllers, the remix duo impressively laid down a fluid mix of songs they manipulated for the crowd live. They reached deep into their bag of tricks, pulling out songs from across genres and giving them the dance floor treatment. They remixed Empire of the Sun, Cut Copy, CSS, Mr. Oizo, Simian Mobile Disco, Kele, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and many, many more. The RAC injected more of their dancey tunes as opposed to some of their indie rock reconstructions, but they felt out what the crowd wanted and delivered the high energy set people were seeking.
The first Girls & Boys Denver party was a great introduction on what to expect for the future. Anytime you see an upcoming Girls & Boys Denver event, expect it to be a non-stop dance fest featuring great talent and sweet visuals. They will bring in the best skilled DJs from around town, and then supplement that with huge talent from around the world. The first party was incredibly fun, thanks to the great music and atmosphere. There were not as many people there as I would have liked to have seen, but the dance floor was still going hard the entire night and it was a good showing for such a new event. If you missed out on the first one, don't worry, this party is bound to come back. But get on it, because this party is only going to get bigger and better each time and you won't want to be left out.
See more pictures from this show in the Facebook photo album. Like the Concerted Effort page to stay up to date.
Read More …
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| Fidget Factory |
It wasn't enough for Girls & Boys Denver to feature some big national and international DJ names, it had to start with local representation. The party began early and I missed the DJ set from opener Spencer Flower, but I still got to see three more local purveyors of dance. I arrived shortly after eight o'clock, and local DJ duo Fidget Factory was up on stage throwing down a heavy electro mix. Fidget Factory's mixing style uses hard electro beats, splashes of womp, and clever dashes of remixed and mashed up songs. I like how in between a section of electro songs, they brought out a remix of Kelis' "Milkshake" mashed up with an instrumental of The Game's "How We Do", making a song that was pure club on so many levels. They got the early crowd's heart rate racing and served as a good warm up for the hours of dance still ahead.
 |
| London Dungeon |
Next on stage was another local DJ two-piece, London Dungeon. London Dungeon started throwing down a mix that had more nu-disco house and dance-funk, getting everyone into a smooth groove. It was a good transition from the earlier set, because if they kept the intensity just as high as the previous act it probably would have wore out the crowd. Instead, their set was at the perfect mid-tempo, bringing back retro '70s and '80s dance sounds wrapped around modern dance textures. I really liked their song selection, giving everything a sort of retro feel, even with newer songs like YACHT's "Dystopia" and CSS's "Hit's Me Like A Rock" - the remixes they played were hot. After a nice discotheque session, London Dungeon handed the decks over to one more local maestro.
 |
| boyhollow |
Not only did he present the show, but boyhollow had to throw down a set as well. It's obvious boyhollow has a passion for making people dance when he's so heavily involved in the parties he presents. For this evening, boyhollow threw down a mix in his characteristic eclectic style, drawing from music across genres to propagate more dance energy to the floor. Showing an ability to carefully and steadily build up crowd energy, boyhollow started with milder mid-tempo house tracks like Cassius' "The Sound of Violence" and built up the intensity until he was slamming the crowd with a little womp and hard electro like Skream's remix of "In For The Kill" by La Roux.
 |
| Paul Anthony |
Paul Anthony took over the reigns next, the first imported artist of the show. He brought his Chicago house experience and Dirty Fabric record label swagger to the dance floor. Lately, Paul Anthony has been churning out electro jams and remixes one after the other, and he brought much of his production work to the decks Saturday night. Using just CD tables and a mixer, Paul Anthony brought face melting electro and hard house to the hapless Denver crowd. My favorite track had to be the remix of Laid Back's "White Horse" he threw down.
By this point of the night, people were starting to file in and take up the dance floor, and that's just when things started to get visually interesting as well. Girls & Boys Denver featured a laser display that continued to get more elaborate and amazing as the night went on. It started with a few lasers during boyhollow's and Paul Anthony's set, impressive but not much beyond the standard fare, but once the international acts of the Kitsuné Club Night Tour started to throw down, the laser light show got absolutely ridiculous.
 |
| Database |
Brazilian DJ duo Database went up on stage next, bringing a crazy blend of electro house - crazy because they remix so many songs that are from outside of the electro realm. They upped the tempo and started to get the crowd sweating as people tried to keep up with one hard mix after the other. My favorite tracks were their electro mix of Stardust's "Music Sounds Better With You", bringing an old favorite back to life with a bang, and they included an electro favorite of mine, "Neon Nights" by MSTRKRFT. When Database was on stage, the party was definitely in full effect, and it only continued to get better from there.
 |
| BeatauCue |
BeatauCue took the stage next, bringing their French electro house sound to Denver. They take hard electro to a new level using crazy tweaked and glitchy sounds, hard thumping bass, and souped up tempos to get dancers going wild. Their sound worked perfectly with the laser display, each high pitched burst hitting my ear drums just as synchronized flashes of colored light dazzled my eyes. They kept their set high energy, but the song that stood out was the song "Close" from their Falcon Punch EP.
 |
| RAC |
From there it was up to headliners RAC to finish the night and smack the audiences' ears with songs remixed and re-imagined in creative ways. Using two laptops and an array of Ableton controllers, the remix duo impressively laid down a fluid mix of songs they manipulated for the crowd live. They reached deep into their bag of tricks, pulling out songs from across genres and giving them the dance floor treatment. They remixed Empire of the Sun, Cut Copy, CSS, Mr. Oizo, Simian Mobile Disco, Kele, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and many, many more. The RAC injected more of their dancey tunes as opposed to some of their indie rock reconstructions, but they felt out what the crowd wanted and delivered the high energy set people were seeking.
The first Girls & Boys Denver party was a great introduction on what to expect for the future. Anytime you see an upcoming Girls & Boys Denver event, expect it to be a non-stop dance fest featuring great talent and sweet visuals. They will bring in the best skilled DJs from around town, and then supplement that with huge talent from around the world. The first party was incredibly fun, thanks to the great music and atmosphere. There were not as many people there as I would have liked to have seen, but the dance floor was still going hard the entire night and it was a good showing for such a new event. If you missed out on the first one, don't worry, this party is bound to come back. But get on it, because this party is only going to get bigger and better each time and you won't want to be left out.
See more pictures from this show in the Facebook photo album. Like the Concerted Effort page to stay up to date.
