Day-Drunks And Faux Amphitheaters: Raging At Unusual Venues

Photo via @Al_Zaidy

Setting off a daytime party at a venue that’s neither club nor concert hall to a cattle of hungover-cum-sober mouth-breathers—who’ve maybe heard of you—while fighting an empty tank of serotonin from last night’s MDMA safari is not the most fantasized scenario artists have when they dream of rocking a crowd.

Enter the MoMA PS1’s Warm Up music shindigs and the exquisitely curated talent selected to blow your hair back. Doors open at 2pm to a makeshift stage built just outside of the museum’s foyer with some parquet laid out over the pebbled courtyard upon which rug-cutters can boogie down. Stage and dance floor recreation, check! The museum also loosens its top button by letting beer flow on the premises. But due to long lines at the beer tent, I doubt anyone has the patience to wait on line for more than four beer trips during the event’s six-hour stretch, thus potentially limiting the amount of hooched-up vigor flowing through the crowd’s veins.

Then it’s time for the artists to face the sun-battered audience in the venue’s open-air quadrant of concrete acoustics. What’s it sound like to play in such a non-traditional venue? Are they concerned that weak booze will result is less tops peeling off? Will they be disappointed to find out that those puddles around the dance floor are not from people dancing in pools of their own sweat, but instead the splattered result of this year’s water-spewing art installation, Wendy?

To put my curiosities to rest and learn from some of the coolest sheriffs of cool, we asked the DJs and producers who performed at this weekend’s Warm Up what they thought about unusual venues, daytime performances, and imperfect acoustics.

MATTHEW DEAR - Co-founder of Ghostly International and arguably the raddest avant-pop musician in the electronic scene at the moment

You’re no stranger to unusual venues. Remind me of some of the ones you’ve played at already?
I've performed at the Guggenheim in New York, the Getty in Los Angeles, the Natural History Museum in New York and Los Angeles, and once before at the MoMa PS1.

Shit, that’s a lot of big museum gigs. What is it about this sort of venue that keeps you coming back?
While a museum sounds like it would be a sterile environment to play in, all of these shows were stellar. I think it has to do with the liberating feeling of partying in such a place. It feels a bit mischievous, so everyone gets extra giddy and let's loose.

Totally! So, what’s different with the MoMA PS1 versus, for example, a strobey club setting?
The MoMA PS1 is plain old special. That faux-amphitheater layout, combined with summer in the city, gives it such a magical feeling. The people that live in the houses adjacent to the museum have parties on their balconies, and then it feels like a block party.

The MoMA PS1 venue is all open-air and all concrete. What sort of effect did that have on the acoustics during your set?
Luckily, human beings are very sound absorbent and the place was packed. I didn't go out into the center of the dance floor, but from my vantage point, everything sounded pretty good.

MIKEQ - Vogue house DJ, producer, and maestro of the ballroom scene

I’m sure you’ve played countless clubs, but have you ever spun at a museum?
Well no, this would be the first time playing inside or outside [a museum] and I’m very excited, I must say, as this will most likely be the hugest crowd I’ve played for, EVER.

How do you feel about playing your vogue-house music outdoors during the daytime in a kind of sober, barely tipsy atmosphere?
[Laughs] Well yeah, that’s a huge difference. But as long as people are dancing and enjoying themselves, I feed off of that, so I’m just going to rock it out as I would if I was in a club.

Was the sound good? I mean the courtyard is pretty much like a concrete fishbowl…
The sound was AMAZING! I dunno what that concrete did, but the sound was SOO isolated and full without needing a bunch of speakers. I enjoyed every second of the loudness. [Laughs]

SEPALCURE - Producers Machinedrum and Praveen Sharma fuse house and bass music to make something sumptuous called Sepalcure.

Have you ever performed at venue that isn’t a club or concert hall?
We have previously performed in the largest opera house in Mexico for Mutek MX. That’s about the closest to a non-traditional music venue we've come to.

So this will be a first for you guys. How do you feel about the idea of a museum being turned into a music venue?
At the end of the day, it’s an outdoor event where people are drinking. Sounds like a good time to us! Seriously though, it’s an interesting mix at PS1 with the art completely surrounding the audience and the galleries inside, if they are feeling particularly frisky. Sort of reminds me of a more art-focused Piknic Electronik.

Warm Up almost seems like the Casual Fridays for museums. What’s other other rules would you like to bend at the museum?
Everybody has to dress up as a space ninja.

JDH - FIXED party starter and spine-snapping DJ of the duo of JDH & DAVE P

You typically spin rooftop clubs that have model-infested jacuzzis. Why play at a dusty ol’ museum?
I think it's great that PS1 puts the Summer Warm Up on. They always book super strong lineups and people can go dance all afternoon outside of a museum, rather than a club. It works especially well in the summer, because people would obviously rather be outside. PS1 always does a great job making the space look great, and the vibe is usually super fun. We obviously love clubs and late-night parties, but it's nice to be able to change it up a bit.

Your music is so perfect for dimly lit escapades. You’re telling me you’re pumped to play in the groggy daytime?
We actually love doing daytime events, and especially looked forward to PS1. Playing in the afternoon gives you a chance to play more mellow, summery jams that we either would only play early in our sets, or sometimes not at all. Since it's PS1/MoMA, we'll try to play a little weirder, as well. We played first, so we were pretty psyched to set the vibes for the day. Get people in and hopefully start the dance party!

@museumbabes