Man o MAN was i psyched to be back in Madison! Back when I lived in St. Louis, we’d play Madison a few times a year, and they were always off-the-rails good times; i remember getting woken up out of a too-partied-out slumber to dance the cha-cha at a Democratic Socialist rent party and then falling promtly back asleep.

After an amazing radio soundtrack leaving MPLS and “japanese” lunch at a food court at a mall in the exurbs, Dhruva and I rolled into Madison with just enough time to pass through Guitar Center– because, while i may have remembered the new pads, cables, stands, and cases, i forgot DRUMSTICKS. #drummerfail. The High Noon Saloon had that great Midwestern Venue vibe in which you feel like, yeah, the show could be amazing, or the night could end with someone we don’t know bailing us out of jail. Either way’s cool with Sub Swara, you know…

(btw check our man @PhilMoney in the middle)

Nasty Nate warmed up the crowd with some heavy-hitting electro, and as we took the stage, it was pretty clear that the heads in the room were ready to dance. No pretense, very little of folks staring each other up and down… the dance space to be occupied was intense and we were ready for the challenge. We brought our DJ table up to the edge of the stage, as close as possible to the audience– in full on hi-five/chestbump range, truth be told.

I love gigs like this, where the divide between performer and audience is physically gone but we’re all vibing off each other. We had some ghosts in the machine for this one– ableton deciding to do weird things, glitches— but the audience was with us, sang along to our remix of “Waiting Room,” offered some karate chops and pogo-ing during “Glitterstep,” and got their hands in the air for Mochipet’s relick of our tune “Hi Fidelity”… don’t believe me?

Even though we couldn’t buy any ROOMBEER that night, we got the sleep of the just knowing that this is how it goes down!