John MacLean, singer, & Nancy Whang, singer
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The Juan MacLean and The Field
May 27, 2009
LIV Nightclub, Fontainebleau, Miami Beach, Florida
Review and photos by Liana Minassian
Wednesdays are Dirty Hairy nights at LIV nightclub, which is located in the overtly posh Fontainebleau hotel and resort on Miami Beach. A classy establishment, LIV attracts Miami’s beautiful elite along with celebrities like the Kardashian sisters and Joaquin Phoenix who briefly showed off his rapping skills, or lack thereof, in March. Dirty Hairy nights often feature live performances by electronic artists, and on May 27th, LIV hosted The Juan MacLean with opening act The Field.
The Field
The Field is a moniker for Swedish musician Axel Willner. His new album Yesterday and Today came out in mid-May but was leaked on the Internet to eager fans. Signed only four years ago to Kompakt records, Willner has already released two albums and an EP. The EP is an interesting concept album called The Sound of Light, which was created at the Nordic Light Hotel in Stockholm as part of their lounge music experiment of the same name. Willner was the first artist invited to create a record inspired by his 25-hour stay at the hotel. His interpretation of "the sound of light" felt right at home within LIV’s primarily LED accented lighting design, especially the dome above the dance floor, which pulses to the beat of the music.
Programming The Juan MacLean
The Field did not play a typical electronic set. In fact, the performance was more along the lines of electronic bands like Holy Fuck and similar artists. Hypnotic techno inspired "The More That I Do" and includes samples that when combined are reminiscent of a Dancer in the Dark-like auditory experience of a fictional environment. While songs do include heavily looped sounds and beats, The Field’s live incarnation was combined with a traditional drummer and bassist. The instrumentation broadened the soundscape, filling in the acoustic spaces often left empty by artificially synthesized music. Unfortunately, it was a disappointingly short set, but songs from both albums pulsed from the speakers into hip, eager ears.
Programming The Juan MacLean
Around midnight, John MacLean and Nancy Whang of The Juan MacLean hit the stage joined by Nicholas Millhiser and Jerry Fuchs doing the sampling and drums. In contrast to The Field, The Juan MacLean’s songs were primarily brighter with danceable, video game style beats, verging on radio friendly house, and sometimes invoking eighties acts like Devo or the Talking Heads. However, they also explored the other end of the emotional spectrum with songs that verged on dark waves with heavy percussion layering. For "One Day," Whang banged along on the drum machine before her and MacLean "busted out" their back and forth disco-esque duet that reminded me of The Human League’s "Don’t You Want Me." Many of their songs sparked some sort of recognition in my musical memory, confirming their across-the-board influences.
Throughout the night, MacLean looked like he was summoning his dance floor demons, while dramatically manipulating a theremin, but his enthusiasm was contagious especially as the group broke into "No Time." The second half was definitely their better half as they built up to a climax with the funky "Give Me Every Little Thing." Strobe laser lighting picked up the energy even further, keeping dance vixens and villains moving and shaking. As the set reached its peak, there wasn’t a stationary foot in the whole place; LIV was a living, breathing dance machine fueled by The Juan MacLean’s unceasing dynamics. Ending on a deafening note, it was certainly the best Dirty Hairy Wednesday I’ve been to thus far, and I challenge the next acts to try and top it.
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