Reaping the live dance-rock crop

The autumn nightlife action is especially hectic this year with venue openings, invite-only events, a deluge of liquor branding efforts and new bands blowing into town on the winds of the CMJ festival. October has been an extra good month for catching live dance acts.

I can turn into a blithering idiot fan for only a few current acts these days, and one of them is Oregon-based Glass Candy (left) who swept into town to play a festival gig as well as a club gig at Debonair in Wicker Park. At once completely trendy in their ennui-bathed synthy-dancey approach, the band (down to a duo right now) is unique enough to be on the radar of only the few heads that can dig German disco, Krautrock and an ethereal almost psychedelic vocalist all in one tune. It got hot in the joint and it was almost torturous watching singer Ida No prance around in a vintage Polo sweater. The group’s set included a Kraftwerk cover and seemed to be more about the crowd letting its hair down and grooving onstage than demanding a lot of attention–a signal that the act is becoming more at home in the clubs than the rock halls at this point. Debonair is turning into more a hybrid venue. The GM tells me the space is licensed to do 18-and-up shows, and will be picking up more and more in the future.

New Young Pony Club has been threatening to take over the dance-rock hot seat with a single called “Ice Cream” and an unusually strong debut in the genre. The quintet swooped into Subterranean with lots of British music press hype, but damn if they couldn’t charm plutonium from a rogue state. With the club’s sound the best I’ve ever heard–props to the touring soundman–NYPC live evokes feelings of being at a comfy, hip dinner party that ends in a trashed apartment from the uncontrolled bouncing that ensues. It is the latest British band to play up youthful edge-of-fashion vibes (dig that silver motorcycle jacket) without actually looking all that young, just looking good. I’ve never seen dudes actually swoon in public the way they were for NYPC keyboard player Louise Hayter.

Last Friday, I was completely overbooked though I managed to visit Underground for nightlife heavy Billy Dec’s birthday party (above), a star-studded benefit type thing that raised $30K for After School Matters. At Underground, I was inches from one of the N*SYNC guys, who I briefly confused with a Backstreet Boy, but left wondering, as usual, "Where in the hell is Schwimmer?" It was just heating up when I split to catch the last gasp of the Stoli Hotel.

New dance hearthrob-turned-frontman Matthew Dear (right) played that Stoli shindig with his Big Hands band. Sonically, it worked for me as moody, thumpy background music, but up close Dear’s three-piece suit, scruffy beard and extra-deep crooning left me feeling like he was putting us on. I felt like I was taking my younger brother to the mall to pick out cologne for the first time. Note to Dear: Enjoy your youth while you can, otherwise New Young Pony Club just might do it for you.