Article By: Mark Dommu
Photos By: Jenna Gard
This Saturday night those of us looking to boogie made the irritatingly inconvenient trip to Terminal 5 (seriously, T5 is so out of the way) for HARD X MOUTH TAPED SHUT, a party in celebration of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. The night promised to be a good one, with LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy opening for Italian electronic duo The Bloody Beetroots. I’m a long time Beetroots fan and have seen them spin several times, always waking up sore and happy the next day, so I went in with high expectations.
The event was 18 and over and free, which meant that about 80% of the crowd had black x’s on their hands. I wondered several times if HARD had been handing out flyers to NYU freshman in Washington Square Park. I’m also not sure how exactly the event had anything to do with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, aside from the fact that Rooney Mara’s head was everywhere…I guess that’s enough?
Proxy and Eye started out the evening, getting the initially small crowd dancing. When Proxy finished up the audience started calling eagerly for James Murphy, only to be met with a ridiculously long wait for his set. After about half an hour someone finally announced that there were technical difficulties and we were placated with Trent Reznor and Karen O’s cover of “Immigrant Song”, which debuted this summer with the first trailer for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.
After an hour of oddly low-tempo filler music (one prolific teenager behind me commented that, “this music is not, like, nice”) Murphy finally appeared and rather halfheartedly apologized for the wait, citing problems with a turntable…or something. He promised the audience, “We’re gonna have as much fun as you can in a short period of time with your clothes on.”
He was…not exactly telling the truth. After such a long wait, Murphy’s set was rather anticlimactic. The set started off with a funky tribal beat that stayed smooth and easy and got everyone dancing. For the most part Murphy’s set sounded like Miami in the 70s, and also maybe the 90s. There were a few interesting moments throughout, one drawn out warping sounded like a spaceship taking off, but for the most part it was an altogether uninspired set and Murphy seemed to be disinterested in the whole affair.
Almost the second Murphy finished the crowd started chanting for the Bloody Beetroots, and the crowd went wild when they appeared. They started with a bang and tore relentlessly through a thrashing, thumping and glorious set. If you’ve never seen the Bloody Beetroots spin before than you are seriously missing out. It’s the kind of set that you have to flail and jump around too. I could feel the bass pounding in my chest, making my face throb with every pulse.
The Bloody Beetroots are certifiable bad asses and they also clearly care about their audience having a good time, They were invested in the crowd’s enjoyment, at one point coming out form behind the DJ booth to rev everyone up. The crowd was losing their shit, I was almost kicked in the head by three different crowd surfers and did not care.
The Bloody Beetroots definitely made the entire night worthwhile, and on the way home I kept thinking about alien’s in boat shoes dancing to James Murphy’s set…so there’s that. I did wake up the next morning sore and happy wit the thump-thump still pulsing in my head, so mission accomplished.
For Jenna Gard’s full photo gallery: click here
