What Went Down: DancePunkParty pres. Joy Division Tribute @ Doppel Kafe

By Alif Omar Mahfix  •  22 Jun 2012 in Reports

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Love shan’t tear us apart… love for Joy Division that is. In fact, the band had united 2 formerly disparate entities; dance and rock. After all, this is the same band that inspired that godawful Wombats track ‘Let’s Dance to Joy Division’. But nevermind that, there has never been a band that exemplifies the dance punk spirit more than Joy Division, it is only fitting that the 9th DancePunkParty! was a tribute to the band.

The night started off with pretty much a mingling session over cheap beer to Joy Division as Xes Xes Loveseat warmed the crowd with post-punk tunes.

Opening with drone rockers, troll-y named Zooey Deschanel Intergalactic Copulation Machine, whose droning made any recognition of their covers nigh impossible (we think they did ‘New Dawn Fades’ at one point). It was interesting that they were followed up by a band that was antithetical to their set, Pastel Lite (1 of our Magnificent Seven) gave an audience friendly electro pop performance that got everyone dancing to their heart drum.

While their set was dominated by their own tracks, they opened with an interview recording of Ian Curtis and ended with Joy Division’s most well-known track, ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’. M.O.I.S.T, led by the organiser himself, Jarrod, was up next. And lest you think this was an SS moment, think again, they were quite good. Opening with originals ‘Forest Fire’ and ‘Tuna’s Not a Fish’ (to name a few), they ended it with a kickass cover of Joy’s ‘Disorder’, which did create the sort of disorder you’d expect at a good rock show.

Kyoto Protocol took up the stage next, playing their standard gig protocol set list before ending it with Joy’s ‘She’s Lost Control’. Fuad said the original plan was more epic than what they ended up doing – they were planning to cover every band that was influenced by Joy. Now that would have been something we really want to see.

The highlight of the night, Free Deserters, proved to be at their best when they were performing Joy Division covers. We have never witnessed Zack Yusof with such rock star gusto on stage before this, and damn, we have never seen a crowd reacting to the band with such enthusiasm either. There was friggin’ crowd surfing even when there wasn’t enough people in attendance for it! The moment they sang ‘Transmission’, we knew they were proper Joy nerds.

As much of a tall order it was to one-up the sort of energy Free Deserters managed to muster from the crowd, another one of JUICE‘s Magnificent Seven, Enterprise, showed their mettle nevertheless. Delivering the sort of French disco-esque tunes you’d expect from an electronic group purely through instruments, they reminded us why we found them to be so damn exciting.

By now you should know why we categorised these bands as Dance Punks in our The Magnificent Seven feature, they are fresh faces who represent the scene best. Perhaps nothing embodies this most than when closing act Dizkopolis (surprise, surprise, another Magnificent Seven) joined forces with Eff Hakim of Pastel Lite for their remix of the latter’s ‘Assassin’.

While it was near 2am by then, there was still a sizable crowd who chose to stay and dance and sing along to the track. Daikan be damned! There wasn’t any Joy Division played though, which was a bit unfortunate considering the nature of the gig. But hey, who’s complaining? Everyone enjoyed themselves to Dizkopolis’ French-influenced electronica – evident in the high-fives given to them every once in a while.

Let’s dance to our Dance Punks.

DancePunkParty pres. Joy Division Tribute happened on Saturday 9 June 2012. Click here for more photos of the gig and check out www.dancepunkparty.com for more on their events.