Nightlife Review: Steve Lawler at Underbar
I’m not really the kind of person who goes out partying on a Wednesday night, but for this show I made an exception. Steve Lawler has been one of the most enduring and talented DJs for as long as I can remember. He’s also one of those DJs where the live show is so much better than any of the mixed CDs or productions. I used to download every live Lawler set I could find online to hear what kind of dark and twisted beats he was playing.
I got to Underbar ridiculously early, about 9:30pm. Usually I’m only there that early to decorate but in this case the opening DJ was already playing. I guess they wanted to give people plenty of time to get there before a line started outside but I don’t think there actually was a line that night.
Tom Bartlett did a great job opening up. I’ve know of him from various messageboards and shows, but had not actually heard him play before. He kept it dark and groovy for the hours leading up to Lawler. It was nice to hear some quality opening talent at Underbar.
Lawler took over just a little bit before midnight. He’s a traktor guy so he only brough along his laptop. For gear it was all Pioneer: Three CDJ-1000’s, a DJM-800 and an EFX-1000. I was really interested to hear what Lawler was going to play. It would seem that tech house is the flavor du jour right now, and so I wasn’t surprised when he played a lot of it.
The first hour of Lawler’s set was just awesome. It was techy but had a good dose of Balearic flavor. I can only assume those sounds are a side effect of spending the summer in Ibiza. Maybe he had those tracks regardless of playing Ibiza, but it doesn’t matter. Tech house is very, well, techy, so having some Balearic melodic flavor on top helps to smooth things out; not many people can enjoy a 2 hour techno-pounding.
The second hour was good, but not as good as the first. His set progressed, obviously, and there were lots of good tracks, but it wasn’t quite as enlightening as the first hour. I couldn’t identify any of the tracks he played but a couple of my friends could. There was at least one Cirrez D track and also a Nic Fancuilli track called ‘Ide‘.
Overall it was a good night of music, and I’m really glad I went to see Lawler in person. There weren’t really any surprises for me because Lawler is playing pretty much the same stuff as a lot of other big DJs right now. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but a part of me just expected him to play some tracks so dark and twisted and non-conforming that I would go “Oh wow, this sounds like Lawler!” Regardless I had a good time: The music was great, I got to hang out with my friends, and I even got to meet Lawler after the show.
Tags: nightlife, review, steve lawler, underbar