While the line got longer out front of The Echoplex for Ratatat’s sold out show, Portland’s E* Rock (the founder of Audio Dregs Recordings and brother of Ratatat’s Evan Mast) started on his own journey of electronic craziness. Cloaking his face with a black t-shirt and sunglasses, the Taliban-looking DJ paced through a set of spastic, noisy, clusterfuck of sounds that somehow all came together at one point. Off tempo beats layered over high pitch squeals he produced using a pair of Nintendo Wii controllers were the tools of his trade. Soon after was the cream of the crop, as the Brooklyn trio started to set up, the floor grew dense with bodies as a girl waved what looked like a glow in the dark dildo over her head. A loud, distorted guitar riff of Mike Stroud filled the room as they opened with “Wild Cat,” A perfectly synced video of ’70s era dance movies beamed behind them as Mast stood rumbling through bass lines, while Stroud and synth player Jacob Morris head-banged through “LEX.” The band ripped through tracks off their new album, LP3, a more electronic-based album, sounding closer to The Advantage than their pervious works.  The dance floor erupted in to screams and shouts as “Seventeen Year” was played as the encore. At that moment, Stroud paused and took in the sight before him, a room packed with people all thankful that he wasn’t in a metal cover band.

– Carlos Villarreal