Vitalic / The Plug, Sheffield
French techno hero Vitalic sparkles at The Plug.
Words Lanre Bakare
The concept of live dance music is a hard one for some people to understand. Images of live PAs or two blokes stood behind laptops checking their email spring to mind and ruin your day. Enigmatic French producer Vitalic is a different prospect, however. With a DJ warming up the crowd on the opposite side of the room, he quietly makes his way on stage and walks over to a table overflowing with wires and paraphernalia. His set-up looks like it should belong to an avant-garde noise group, not to the creator of some of the most memorable and distinctive tracks in 21st century techno.
As soon as the crunching, tense, bass-laden kick drum of ‘My Friend Dario’ starts, the train has departed and it’s too late to get off. Unremitting beats and tight, terse mixing builds the tension further. This is what techno sounds like in its purest form: there are no samples and only minimal vocals.
The crowd was a mix of techno-heads, indie kids and curious parties, all drawn in by what they saw on the stage. People stood at the edges of the dancefloor slowly getting into it. First, heads would nod, then rye grins would appear, and soon enough, after a breakdown, uncontrollable dancing. It spread as Vitalic’s golden back catalogue was ripped through: ‘Poney Part 1’, ‘Repair Machines’ and an epic 10-minute reworking of ‘La Rock 01’. By the end, he had his audience on their knees.
Sceptics of ‘live’ dance music always talk about how much more forceful the energy that bands create is. Ask anyone who saw Vitalic that night if the performance was lacking and they’d get the same response: What do you think?
