Hyper-ragers swoon to Autre Ne Veut, dance to Delorean at Making Time (photos, review)

All photos by Rachel Barrish | RaddRhapsodies.com

It was billed as a hyper-rager, and it certainly did not disappoint – the March edition of Dave P‘s Making Time was a stacked triple-bill, with noisy Montreal synth rockers Doldrums, expressive R&B crooner Autre Ne Veut and Spanish dance-rock outfit Delorean.

After Doldrums’ colorful set involving puffy knit headwear and trashcan percussion, Autre Ne Veut took the stage to a tightly packed room. The project of Brooklyn’s Arthur Ashin played Philadelphia this winter on a reportedly sparsely-attended lineup at Johnny Brenda’s – a drag, since his intense style of performing both requires a crowd to vibe off of and deserves a crowd to take in. The teeming crew on the Voyeur main floor seemed like a just recompense, and Ashin strutted the front row, pumped his fist in the air from off the monitor, fell to his knees, made emotive faces and sang acrobatic vocal riffs. The three-piece band worked wonders on tracks from this year’s Anxiety – particularly “Ego Free Sex Free” and “Play by Play” – and while they didn’t venture particularly far from the album arrangements, Ashin’s stage presence elevated the songs to a whole other level.

While Autre Ne Veut confirmed the live reputation I’d been hearing so much about, Barcelona’s Delorean were a total surprise. The band makes sweetly shimmering synthpop, the sort of thing that typically-speaking sounds great coming out of headphones but falls flat in performance. Not these guys, though. Their onstage energy was massive, carrying hints of torch-bearers New Order and Erasure and contemporaries Hot Chip – artists that can make electronic pop work in a band context – and the riled-up crowd totally fed off of it. Points also for slaying the late 80s club nugget “Ride on Time” by Black Box. Check out photos of the night in the gallery above.