Neon Indian - Deaf Institute - 4.9.10
Brought to you by the uber trendy Now Wave party planners, Chillwave champions Neon Indian rolled into the Deaf Institute all the way from little known Denton, Texas armed with fully loaded laptops and more twiddling nobs than the Printworks on a Saturday night. Fronted and composed by Alan Palomo, also known for his work with the band Ghosthustler and as the artist VEGA, Neon Indian filled the air with spine tingling synth pop that unfortunately failed to get the under capacity crowd jerking and twisting with as much enthusiasm as Palomo himself. Neon Indian are a shining example oh how technology can fraternise with talent but even their most well-known song, the warbbling synth sing-a-long 'Deadbeat Summer' taken from the much acclaimed Psychic Chasms failed to elicit more than a shuffle from the lack lustre crowd.
Support provided by first time giggers Somersault and Chad Valley (apparently not inspired by the toy manufacturer) set the technological enhanced tone by filling the screen with floating turtles and slightly over weight beach lovers, that combined with enough delay on the vocals to sooth any misgivings that the headliner were not worth the cheap as chips £7.00 price tag. Despite the video footage not actually having anything to do with the timings of the songs, it was a nice touch and one that could be developed into something really exciting.
While chillwave has carried on from its 2009 initial hype and surged from strength to hip shaking strength throughout summer 2010, the crowd were entirely a little too chilled for a Saturday night, but maybe this doesn’t indicate the end of this genre, which is still relatively in its infancy, or reflects the commercial pulling power of Neon Indian, maybe it just signals we all realise we’ve come to the end of this summer.
Words / Photos: Jo Lowes - http://jojolowes.tumblr.com/
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