U Street Music Hall kicked off MSTRKRFT’s 2016 tour on Wednesday night. We aren’t completely sure what they’ve been up to for the last five years, since they released their album “Fist of God”, but they started a new Soundcloud three months ago and have been putting up some originals and remixes. In a moment of nostalgia and curiosity, we were super excited for the live show at our favorite home turf venue.
Jesse F. Keeler and Alex Puodziukas (aka Al-P) took to the stage around 11:45 p.m., the Canadian duo immediately got to work on massive layouts of synths and cable patches. Diving right into some dark techno stuff, MSTRKRFT’s sound made the hair on your arms stand on end.
We aren’t sure why this show wasn’t sold out– but to be fair, Wednesdays in DC are the best night of the week. This particular Wednesday made us weigh our options between MSTRKRFT at U Hall, Jack Beats at Flash, and Joker at Soundcheck. Great problems to have.
Very excited to mix @zdanz and @mstrkrft tonight @uhalldc! The magic starts at 10:30! pic.twitter.com/YDFiz2p7SC
— Andrew Logan (@lgnsnd) June 2, 2016
It was kind of nice not to be sardined into the venue. With plenty of room to dance and groove, MSTRKRFT kept going with the techno vibes. Repetitive and loud beats blasted fans, and I wondered if Keeler gets mistaken for Adam Driver or Dave Grohl more? His long dark hair makes him an uncanny doppelganger.
They did have a little audio problem midway through the set, and mentioned the computer died and they would have to make stuff up. We did see them checking their gear by the glow of a lighter before they started. We had our best “Woooos” and whistles to cheer during the breakdowns, thanks for the new live show MSTRKFT – doing something different is always cool.