DJ sets these days put an emphasis on trippy graphics, big drops and instagrammable moments. Jamie XX, London born James Thomas Smith, played at the Concourse project in Austin last Monday and abandoned the expectations to perform along mesmerizing visuals. Instead, he shifted our attention to what matters most.
The music.
Producer of the London indie rock trio the XX, Smith’s In Waves brought a pool of his European influences to American ears. His bassy UK garage dance album turned heads. It chased feelings we’ve only heard about on those legendary 90s dance floors – hedonistic, collective and free.
Many clubs today only echo ‘PLUR’ culture (Peace, Love, Unity, Respect). In Waves was crafted from that fleeting philosophy. His Monday night performance created an environment the album dreams of, but that unconditional, collectivist love is rare.
Many attribute its endangerment to accessible distractions and surveillance provided by phones. Artists, venues and dancers have testified about the disrupters of the dance floor.
The No. 1 club in the world rated by DJ Magazine implemented club room phone bans. Dua Lipa called for restraint during her Royal Albert Hall debut. Club dancers even speak up about its distraction.
Electronic music concerts construct big moments that beg to be recorded. Social media conflates the dance scene with explosive drops, extreme visuals and FOMO. So how did it feel when Jamie XX performed without visuals satisfying our eyes?
The bass resounded so deeply you can feel the air vibrating. The setlist brought a mix of eclectic genres you wouldn’t get from any other artist. It defines Jamie – but the lack of stimulation left out the desires an attention economy tells us we want.
Audiences might not be ready to embrace the music forward dance floors of the past.
Award winning British artist, Bambii began the night with American influenced drops. At 9 p.m., Jamie XX quietly entered the DJ booth without any introduction. Just a seamless musical transition into “Wanna,” the first track of In Waves that fans waited nine years for.
Cheers queued phone screens to light up to capture the dimly lit Jamie Thomas Smith. You could barely see his blurry silhouette waving back to a sold out 18,000 capacity Concourse Project.
The sea of screens disappeared one by one as people swayed to the next song, “Treat Each Other Right”, chatting and waiting for the next capturable moment.
It’s strange to be in a club without people dancing. Club hit “Baddie on the Floor” produced with house music legend and Beyonce collaborator, Honey Dijon, inspired little more than left-to-right swaying around me. The Monday night crowd felt more like a listening session than the raves Jamie typically headlines.
About halfway through the two-hour set, the venue screen projected a live camera feed of the crowd. We all saw a packed, but sterile crowd as it accompanied the Grammy winner’s live remixes. Romy’s “Loud Places,” a Spanish flamenco mashup of “Life” featuring Robyn and “All You Children” summoned a collective release that the crowd didn’t match.
Many sang the choruses and enjoyed unexpected musical moments, but I kept asking, what’s happening? Why weren’t people dancing?
Jamie ended the set with a mashup of “Daffodil” with its source material, J.J. Barnes’ 1973 track “I Just Make Believe.” For the finale, the audience live feed cut to Jamie’s DJ deck, revealing a record player left spinning. Playing vinyl in this setting comes with great challenges.
Jamie told music podcaster Derrick Gee he brought along a personal sound engineer to seamlessly blend quieter antique records. Mixing modern music that’s engineered to feel like the inside of a booster rocket with muted records goes beyond what others consider for a DJ set. Too bad the audience only preached the album’s ode to club culture and left its practice to the past.
Maybe a Monday night time slot subdued the energy. Maybe social media’s sensationalism brought disappointment. But Jamie XX’s ambition to ignite the dance floors inspired ideas without action.