Urlaubshits

“I feel like I’m at a museum”, said the dressed in white Maclean just after his full band had finished their blistering intro of “The Simple Life. It was nice to see the slightly odd surroundings of the Queen Elizabeth Hall’s cavernous foyer hadn’t diluted any of his trademark wit. But strangely, the building’s brutalist architecture was a fitting counterpoint to his brand of sci-fi disco house, and together with some space themed neon visuals, atmosphere was created, where, by all rights, there should have been none.

“Tito’s Way” was introduced by some otherworldly sonorous clang which looked to have been created by Maclean’s theremin, which he manipulated with all the gusto of a stadium rock star shredding away at his guitar, whilst the live drumming and percussive breakdown is crisp and tight. Due to some problems with the sound, Nancy Whang’s vocals had been until this point somewhat muted, but it was during their rendition of “The Station” that her trademark shouty vocals really came to the fore. Wearing a one piece blue trouser-dress, her positive screech was a marvellous contrast to the thick bass and bleeps of a track which really came to life in a live context.

“You Can’t Have It Both Ways” (which is featured below for listening) is one of The Juan Maclean’s earliest tracks (dating back from the days of the DFA Compilation #1), but live it was one of the night’s highlights, and felt as fresh as any of the new material, Maclean jumping from keyboard to bassline synthesiser to give us the kind of acid jam that his recent material and performances (particularly in his Love Acid guise) have become almost legendary for.

“One Day” was perhaps one of the relative disappointments of the evening; the euphoric piano sounds not sounding quite sharp enough to be suitably felt over the rest of the instrumentation. But this is segued straight into “Give Me Every Little Thing”, and audible cheers are heard; when the bass kicks in it offers one of the most satisfying drops of the night. This is swiftly followed by the acid drenched “No Time”, another disappointment as the bass is perhaps too thick for its own good, drowning out almost everything else. But all these relatively minor problems could be forgiven for what was about to come.

“This is called Road To Nowhere” said Maclean, as he introduced the final song of their set. But there was no cover of the Talking Heads classic, rather, the bassline that everyone had been waiting for. It’s hard to describe in words just how transcendent The Juan Maclean’s live version of “Happy House” was. When the piano kicked in, the crowd were whipped into a frenzy, which combined with the blinding strobes and Maclean’s live percussion added some real kineticism to the performance. Oddly however, after only about six minutes the song had already reached it’s “Launch me into space” denouement, and seemed like the band were ready to wind down. But Maclean begins working the acid on his TB-303, and it’s clear that things have only just begun. For another ten minutes the track morphs out of all recognition; it reaches what seems like its climax and the piano riff is dropped again, with a cosmic melody laid over the top; the performance is slowed right almost to a stop, then the tempo is brought back up and it stops before it all begins again. The Talking Heads reference makes a perverse kind of sense, as it feels at times like the track is never going to end; but the frenzied crowd are by this point positively rabid, and one can’t help but feel that they probably could have danced themselves deaf until dawn and wouldn’t have cared. Not bad for a Sunday night in a museum.

Listen:> The Juan Maclean - You Can’t Have It Both Ways

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The Future Will Come is out now on DFA Records

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