Robert DeLong at the Ogden Theatre

by Sal Christ

Robert DeLong’s performance at the Ogden Theatre as opening act for the Faint was, in short, too short but mind blowing despite its brevity.

A cross between LCD Soundsystem, Reggie Watts, and the late TRVS DJAM, Delong’s stunning aural experience cocktailed hooky electronics, organic drum corps meets orchestral percussives, and an interactive, crowdsourced set piqued by something I’ve never seen—the use of video game controllers to manipulate sound output. Whether driving a joystick or the ubiquitous Wii remote or what could have passed for a Sega controller, all flickered about off and on throughout Delong’s one-man set and bent the sounds much in the same way a turntablist flexes his or her scratching muscles around samples and beats on vinyl or otherwise.

Despite a somewhat empty venue early on, Delong set to involving the audience in his performance immediately when he fed crowd cheers into a system of not one, but three Apple laptops on loop before weaving in bits of his own vocals, prerecorded harmonies, and more. Upbeat in an almost new age way, his lyrical manifestations cheered brightly with anecdotes such as, “Be not afraid, it’s just a game,” and “We call that progress, but it’s just movement,” which just further moved the crowd to bobbing heads, thumping feet, and pushed closet clubbers into breaking out synchronized head banging and glow-stick-free liquid dance.

But DeLong is not merely a technophile with digital native genes that bequeathed him access to 21st century music-making methods—the kid’s mastery of sticks is something magical. While dubstep beats are generally computer-generated these days, Delong’s execution on a gorgeous drum set stamped with his signature orange “X” logo lent itself to the assumption that he must have spent hours upon hours practicing everything from basic drumming to recreating EDM thumping to the theatrics found in major orchestral arrangements whose banging is almost military. How else was such a spectacular performance possible? And Delong’s set wouldn’t have been complete without homage to one of North America’s EDM master’s, Moby, whose track, “Natural Blues,” he remixed into a coarser gem.

The only downfall of the evening was that his set didn’t last longer—DeLong entirely upstaged the second and shall-remain-nameless opening act, whose performance was an exhausting epileptic drone to listen to. Should Delong headline his own tour in the future, his electronic and technologic shenanigans are not to be missed—this guy makes brain spray out of the future of the marriage between music and its makers.

Online: robertdelong.com

Tags: ogden theatre, Colorado Music Buzz, sal christ, Robert Delong

Category: On The Scene