Ghostly International Knows How to Throw a Party
By Veronica Murtagh in Arts & Entertainment on Aug 24, 2009 8:20PM
We weren't sure what to expect from Ghostly International's 10 Year Anniversary party last Friday night at the Empty Bottle. The lineup was certainly ambitious and we hoped the niche label would find a warm welcome in the fickle terrain that is Chicago nightlife. A rainy trek to the venue found us pessimistic and prematurely doubting Chicago's enthusiasm for the evening ahead. The audience for electronic music in this city is a hard crowd to bridge. Good times and drunken debauchery increasingly feel favored over critical listening and passion for the talent. We arrived and stepped inside the Empty Bottle to find our fears vanish and a grin grace our lips alongside a packed house of Ghostly fans as eclectic as the lineup.
Though we had missed the opening act, Eliot Lipp's side project, Dark Party, we arrived at the perfect moment, transported to an industrial club circa 1985 over a soundtrack of dark, pounding beats and growling vocals from local act Kill Memory Crash. A sheet hung haphazardly from the stage wall with fractured video projected onto its every wrinkle. Thrashers mingled with indie rockers and audiophiles nodded their heads in contemplation. Kill Memory Crash careened through the dark like a high octane road race and closed their set with the pedal grinding the pavement.
IDM producer Solvent (Jason Amm) took the stage in stark contrast to Kill Memory Crash. Few organizers would have the guts to pair together such disparate sounds, but Ghostly has a knack for the unexpected and the discerning crowd would have accepted no less. Solvent turned the venue into a frenzy of dancing, alternating between sweeping, blip beep dreamscapes and vocoder serenades. We stared wide-eyed, beaming at the stage as Solvent cavorted like a robot and covered Madonna's Hung Up.
Designer/musician Tycho followed Solvent, and after a few technical difficulties, swept the audience away to an audiovisual soundtrack of a hot air balloons, drifting glaciers, slumber and bliss. Tycho couldn't have been a better fit for that certain part of the evening where revelry turns to exhaustion and self-reflection sets in. Sleep-eyed patrons left the venue hand-in-hand towards wherever the night might take them.
Ghostly International proved Friday night that if you build it, they will come. The road might be long, filled with twists and turns, but patience reaps rewards. A welcoming audience will always be there for those that dare to challenge the expected, and interject vision and creativity into the ordinary.