Disclosure came through Florida this past weekend, and we were lucky enough to hit up the Orlando date. The place was slam-packed, sold out at 2500 tickets for the Orlando debut of electronic music’s rising stars.
The night got started with sets by Samo Sound Boy, who spun UK bass and garage to an anxious, but open-minded, audience. When the brothers came out, all hell broke loose. I saw the “indie” crowd too cool to move at a Portugal. The Man show in this very building, but for Disclosure, they were loud. I didn’t know there were audible lyrics after “When a fire starts to burn, RIGHT, and it starts to spread…” but rest assured there’s something going on.
Either that, or it’s like when homies sing that part in the Missy Elliot song where they reverse “I put my thang down flip it in reverse it.” Or… “ti esrever ni ti pilf nwod gnaht ym tup i.”
But I digress…
Anyways, these kids got it goin’ on! At just 22 and 19, respectively, Guy and Howard are well on their way to sustaining global success. If the Grammy nods weren’t enough, hearing two thousand young adults scream “Latch” at the top of their lungs will certainly drill it in.
Musically speaking, I wasn’t thoroughly impressed, and I’ll confess that I rarely am with electronic music. The songs that I expected to be played were played, in an order that I more-or-less expected them to be played in (start with “When a Fire..,” end with “Latch…”) and with the exception of maybe two songs that appeared to be new works-in-progress, there was nothing fresh at the show. I was hoping for some of their newest, hip-hop sounding stuff like the joint with Bishop Nehru or that catchy-ass song with Sam Smith and Nile Rodgers. That would have changed things up nicely, prolonged the set (that clocked in at just an hour and a half, no encore) and freshened everything up a little from the 120 bpm range they hung out in for the duration of the night.
Don’t get me wrong, it was really a great show, and it really felt like the Settle victory lap in America for that album being so successful and well-received. However, I think they still have great strides to make in the live show. It’s good though, because with the talent, sound and age of this duo, the sky is the limit.
The mere fact that they aren’t hiding behind CDJs is honestly good enough for me. Playing bass and live samples while warming the EDM culture up to the idea that this kind of music can be played by instruments is progress, and for that, we thank Disclosure.
