I was expecting October 19's Broken Disco at Chop Suey to be one of the biggest yet for the monthly electronic dance night—Modeselektor's last Seattle appearance filled and killed the Re-bar—but I wasn't expecting a line-out-the-door-capacity crowd. It was a huge success for Broken Disco and a good indicator of the strength of Seattle's electronic music scene (as crowded and hype as it got for Modeselektor, there was just as much energy from the crowd for locals Jacob London). The overwhelming attendance even has some people on the division list wondering if Broken Disco has become too popular. The answer is perhaps just that Modeselektor have become too popular for a 500-person venue, and that Broken Disco is doing just fine—we'll find out next month, when the night hosts an all-local lineup.
Modeselektor's set was incendiary and fun, a high-energy hybrid of beats, dub, devastating synths, and stuttering edits. At one point, the duo dropped "Ghostride the Whip" over their own swaggering beats, and it made perfect sense—Modeselektor are hyphy as fuck, they're just a little more East Berlin than East Bay.
If Modeselektor drew a much bigger crowd than expected, the Ghostly double up of Matthew Dear and Mobius Band the next night was strangely underattended. As Mobius Band began their set, there were maybe a couple dozen people in the Crocodile, and at least 20 percent of them were music critics. It was not looking good. But Mobius Band played like it was a full house ready to rock. Their shaggy-bearded bassist/singer shuffled and bounced and made cute, not-annoying bass faces, the guitarist/singer managed to shred while looking totally dapper and calm, and their drummer kept hitting groovy off-beats and nailing impossibly fast electronic fills. The two singers both alternated between guitars, Akai MPCs, and keyboards, occasionally managing a couple things at a time.
Matthew Dear's Big Hands were a three piece consisting of Dear on vocals, laptop, effects, visuals, and percussion; a drummer; and a bassist. Their renditions of Dear's songs—mostly stuff from his excellent new Asa Breed, but also earlier track "Tide" and the breakout "Dog Days"—were pretty much faithful to the recordings, only with the added muscle and sweat of live drums, and with Dear's deep, reverb-drenched voice more up front in the mix. They totally nailed the melancholy groove thing that Dear does so well in the studio, especially on the sublime single "Deserter."
One odd thing was how the band would build up a groove, ride it for a few minutes, and then suddenly stop. That's kind of how Dear's tracks work on record, but it was jarring live; the crowd wanted to get in a groove and stay there but had to keep starting over with each new song. "Don and Sherri" and "Deserter" both built into powerful grooves shortly before their abrupt endings, and it would have been sweet if the band had kept a continuous beat going from song to song. I also would've been happier if a pair of midtempo ballads halfway through the set had been cut in favor of "It's Over Now" or even an upbeat instrumental.
But these are minor complaints. For the most part, the show was fantastic. Maybe Seattle's electronic crowd was too hungover from Broken Disco to make it, but they missed out.
This week, the show not to miss is Architecture in Helsinki, Glass Candy, and Panther at the Showbox on Monday, October 29 (every Monday in October has had an awesome show—what's up with that?). Worth checking out earlier in the week is New Young Pony Club on Saturday, October 27 at Nectar, and/or Jenny Hoyston of Erase Errata and Tara Jane O'Neil at the Vera Project the following night. Hoyston is a dark but not humorless lyricist and her guitar skills easily transfer from Erase Errata's blackout disco punk to loosely psychedelic semiacoustic pop. New Young Pony Club hail from the opposite end of the disco-punk spectrum, playing immediately enjoyable if disposable electro pop full of TR-808 cowbells, slick guitar jags, and vacantly pretty female vocals (think CSS with a little more groove and a little less cartoonish punk). In other words, it's pretty much perfect for Saturday night at the disco.
Finally, the much-anticipated Death of Pine Street™ kicks off on Halloween with the last ever show at Kincora, a free bill featuring Holy Ghost Revival, Emeralds, the King's English, and the Knast. Pony, Bus Stop, and Man Ray are next. The Baltic Room recently changed ownership, but is apparently safe for now. 
