(Note: Despite this entry's title, it has nothing to do with The Wonder Stuff.)
I'm not sure if any of us had planned to attend Planet Electronica, part of KCRW's series of shows at Hollywood Bowl. However, Balthazar Monsoon informed me that it was an extremely inexpensive show, so I passed the word on to Carlos and Estelle. Then Estelle told her friends and, since one of the friends actually had a birthday on the same date as the show, we ended up as part of a group of ten picnicking on the hilltop overlooking most of Los Angeles, sort of a posh version of Heavy Metal Parking Lot. Despite detailed text messages, Balthazar Monsoon and I were unable to find each other at all during the course of the night, but it's okay because we texted comments to each other after the show.
After the picnic, we caught Bossacucanova, a Brazilian group who essentially revamp bossa nova tunes with turntables and modern electronic instruments. The music was more my parents' taste than my own, but it was a nice way to ease into the dance music after eating dinner.
Royksopp opened with an ominous electronic sound that prompted Carlos to mention something about The Melvins and Estelle's friend to mention Black Sabbath. It didn't take long for the Norwegian duo to work into the new single, "Only This Moment," which has this airy, robots-in-love quality to it. We looked around, apprehensive to get up and dance as it might annoy the people behind us. Once we noticed that everyone else inside the nearly sold-out amphitheatre was rising from the benches, we made our move. We gradually spread out across the our row of seats during "Remind Me" (which Torbjorn Brundtland sang in a fashion quite similar to Erlend Oye), slowly moving whilst whispering about Svein Berge's open shirt and dark good looks. By the time they played "Eple," the entire Hollywood Bowl was dancing like candy ravers at Nocturnal Wonderland. When the duo closed with "Poor Leno," I looked to the side and noticed Estelle's younger sister dancing in the aisle with glo-sticks.
"Hey, where did you get the glo-sticks?!" we all shouted at various different points in the song.
After Basement Jaxx opened with, "Good Luck" (featuring Lisa Kekaula in an 80s-looking wedding dress), we were all in the aisle dancing on stairs with glo-sticks. I'm still not sure how the glo-sticks ended up in our hands, but that doesn't really matter. My eyes darted back and forth between neon pink trails and the stage show as I sang along to "Romeo" and tried not to lose my balance.
Carlos and I saw Basement Jaxx once before, at Coachella in 2004. That show was a cross between a DJ-set and a live performance, with the performance pieces centered around Kish Kash. At that time, we thought Basement Jaxx were utterly amazing, stealing the festival for that Sunday. I must say, though, that Basement Jaxx were even more intense at this particular concert. It was a full stage show comprising of mostly the hits ("Rendez-Vous," "Just 1 Kiss," "U Don't Know Me," et cetera). The vocals were dynamic, turning even a cover of "Hollaback Girl" into something extraordinary. At one point, they brought out ragga singers and broke into the break from "Apache."
We thought "Where's Your Head At?" was the finale, as the song ended with the entire Basement Jaxx crew onstage and the monkey jumping on top of folks. We were wrong. After the left the stage, a long line of drummers marched to the center. Soon, a flock of feathered dancers appeared and the Jaxx were back rockin' the party like it was Carnivale. It was a finale like no other.