Philadelphia Starlight Ballroom - Philadelphia, PA Live Review: 11/14/08 *** It’s difficult to ascertain the inner workings of a crowd; to hypothesize about what brings people to attend a particular show, to analyze how demographics may relate to the overall ‘energy’ of the concert experience. Aldous Huxley famously wrote of what he described as ‘crowd-intoxication’, a phenomenon in which an individual ceased to be autonomous and instead became consumed, his behavior dictated by the will of the mass surrounding him. Though Huxley was writing about the more sinister circumstances of ‘herd-poisoning’ and mob mentality, his observations are applicable to the concert setting and the group experience in general. Much of the live musical experience is governed by those you share it with – their motives for attendance, expectations for the evening, even their degrees of sobriety. It was not much of a challenge to guess the plans of the people gathered for the Telepathe, Abe Vigoda, Blaqstarr, Boy 8-Bit, and Diplo line-up. Whether a given act was ‘tropical punk’, ‘club’, ‘bmore’ or ‘indie-tronic’, each one had a common denominator – danceability – and played to an audience known for its inability to dance – hipsters (though, to be fair, it was a diverse crowd). Telepathe was given the task of inaugurating the dance-a-thon. Its EP can be classified as music for people who can’t move fluidly to dance to. Its production lies somewhere in the middle of the nu-rave heap of remixed hits and sampled house riffs. It brings to mind an underground club in Berlin circa 1980 -- one where the patrons are too strung out to realize (or care) they are listening to a Kraftwerk rip-off. If the 70’s German techno scene and the 90’s house explosion had a ginger-haired stepchild, it would sound (and perhaps even look) something like Telepathe. It are an example of how anyone with Ableton and a few hours at home can get on a stage to perform… is this the message we want to send our children? Faced with kicking off the performance, Telepathe were clearly overmatched by the audience, and uncomfortable on stage. They seemed better-suited to performing in the living room of a friend’s apartment, not touring with Diplo. This is not to say Telepathe doesn’t have any good songs - "Chrome’s On It" comes to mind - but this duo, accompanied by Boy 8 Bit on guitar, would fare better having their music spun by a DJ, rather than performed live. They are a classic example of a re-mixable sound that, when prodded and poked just right, can produce a danceable beat. Their mash of tribal, electronic and dub influences could eventually turn into something worth listening to onstage; but for now, though, it befits the home stereo system. Despite this, the composition of the Mad Decent tour was fairly logical. Though Abe Vigoda might stand out slightly, the rest of the artists were no more than two degrees of separation away from Diplo’s record label. *** Photo Credit: Jonathan Adams