Throughout my time in Baton Rouge, I have managed to see a remarkable amount of live music. Beats Antique, Datsik, and Bassnectar have been my favorite shows in the Red Stick to date. Lively acts playing to packed crowds of eager listeners brought the town to life before my eyes, with the combination of friendly crowds and intimate venues making this one of my favorite cities for live music. In particular, The Varsity Theatre is a place which I have come to expect a lot from, with excellent acts and fantastic drink specials. When I heard that stars had aligned to bring a powerhouse lineup to town, I knew that it was going to be an excellent night.
Baton Rouge’s Da’politiks, an electronic duo performing an entirely home-grown set of mostly trap and dubstep got the night started off right. One of the small handful of local electronic acts I had yet to see, they managed to engage their audience and keep their crowd dancing through their entire set. The crowd slowly grew and their energy was ever building.
In no time at all, Atlanta’s HeRobust took the stage to fill The Varsity with a mix of bass, glitch, and fine southern hip-hop. When I first heard HeRobust a while back, I described him to my friends as, “too good not to listen to, but too obscure to pirate.” His diverse spectrum of tunes range from downtempo to super hype and touch everywhere in between. Anyone who has ever experienced LSU’s tailgates would have to be deaf to ignore Baton Rouge’s love of hip-hop, and HeRobust’s unique take on this genre was well-received, to put it mildly. Too soon his set was over, and an already wild night quickly became more intense.
Cherub was the big mystery for me going into the evening. I had listened to a few songs from their recent 100 Bottles EP, but I didn’t have any idea what the band would look like. Armed with seemingly simple instruments, the duo came onstage with a guitar on each back and a USB drum machine waiting for them on stage. The combination of well rehearsed instrumentation and a rockstar level of stage presence made a crowd of likely normal, well-adjusted young people turn into a frothing, dancing mess of humanity. A long version of Daft Punk’s “Around The World” was a particular crowd pleaser for all in attendance, and originals had their true fans singing along to every word. On top of a fantastic performance, Cherub ended their set and went out to party with the people. The band members took pictures with gaggles of fans, some of whom handed me smart phones and shot me pleading looks, while a train of enthusiasts bought the band drinks and congratulated them on a great show.
After three fantastic acts, the main attraction took the stage. Gramatik, yet another musical duo, brought the funk with their signature sounds and a stage setup that looked like it had been hauled in from Soviet Germany and spruced up with modern lighting. The combination of DJ and guitar that make up Gramatik rocked the night away in front of a packed house that kept going until the very last song.
This was the best lineup of live music I have had the fortune of seeing in years, and seemed unimaginable for a Tuesday night. The show went off without a hitch, the acts rocked, and if you weren’t there you missed out. The most fascinating part of the night for me, however, lay not on the stage, but everywhere else in the venue.
Almost the entirety of the crowd looked to be going through either demonic possession or an epileptic episode, and were dancing like our parents worry we are. The dancers looked like fools, they looked like crazies, they looked like they had inner ear problems, but above all they looked like they were having fun. The mixture of dress and undress, lighted toys and flat brims, glitter and beer-stains that encompassed the portion of the crowd that was interested in the heavy bass music would have made no sense in any other place. Here, at such a performance, the freaks run the show.
The happy middle ground that Cherub occupies managed to unify the crowd in contagious enthusiasm that was fueled throughout the night by the variety of $2 beers that The Varsity offers. And with that, the crowd became as one. And with that, the good times were had by all.
Before the show I had the chance to sit down and talk with HeRobust
Missed the show? Check out the performers!
