If disco ever actually died (which is debatable, at best), then Chromeo, Purple Disco Machine, and Duck Sauce deserve their plaudits for resurrecting the art form. All three acts filled the air near downtown Los Angeles with disco vibes during an October opening extravaganza at the Shrine L.A. Outdoors.
Every act on the bill came with a tie of some sort to Chromeo. Kiinjo, the opening DJ, shares Canadian roots with the duo of Dave “Dave1” Macklovitch and Patrick “P-Thugg” Gemayel. He had previously collaborated with the pair under the alias of Grandtheft.
Duck Sauce’s connection to Chromeo is the clearest. A-Trak, who comprises half of Duck Sauce alongside Armand van Helden, is Alain Macklovitch, the younger brother of Dave1. The collaboration between A-Trak and Armand was the outgrowth of an introduction by P-Thugg.
Duck Sauce has fashioned its own smash hits over the years, all of which made it into the mix as the sun set on the Shrine’s retooled parking lot. Drops of “aNYway”, “Big Bad Wolf”, and, of course, “Barbara Streisand” hearkened back to the 2010s, when electronic dance music was making its way into the musical mainstream.
Tino Piontek has shown a knack for remixing Chromeo’s tracks as Purple Disco Machine, including a more uptempo version of “Juice”. The German DJ didn’t include that track in his setlist—presumably out of respect for his co-headliners. Instead, Purple Disco Machine (PDM) kept the crowd moving and grooving to his own slew of standards, including “In The Dark”, “Dopamine”, and “Something on My Mind”.
In between, PDM strung together a scintillating set buoyed by disco staples and revamped crowd-pleasers. Under the former category fell snippets of Hot Streak’s “Body Work”, Lipps Inc.’s “Funky Town”, and Donna Summer’s “I Feel Love”. The latter, meanwhile, was split between repurposed pop hits (Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer”, C+C Music Factory’s “Gonna Make You Sweat”, Lizzo’s “About Damn Time”, Technotronic’s “Pump Up the Jam”, and The Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me”) and EDM fan favorites (Eric Prydz’s “Call on Me” and Zombie Nation’s “Kernkraft 400”).
Between those DJ extravaganzas, Chromeo took center stage for a spectacular show of their own. Backed by their usual stage design of a chrome shell and keyboards mounted onto mannequin legs, Dave1 and P-Thugg ticked through a 17-song setlist comprised of tried-and-true hits and soon-to-be standards.
After a flashy introduction to “Fancy Footwork”, Chromeo dove right into fresh material with “(I Don’t Need A) New Girl”. The longtime friends from Montreal followed that up with the trio of “Juice”, “Something Good”, and “Must’ve Been” before dropping in another new song, “Replacements”.
That these tunes—along with “Words With You” in the middle of the set and the live debut of “Personal Effects” to close—featured so prominently into the evening was no accident. The next day, Chromeo announced plans to release the group’s next album, Adult Contemporary, on February 16th, 2024.
All the teasing of new material still left plenty of room for Chromeo’s signature songs, from “Night By Night” and “Over Your Shoulder” to “Jealous (I Ain’t With It)” and “Needy Girl”—the first song the duo ever recorded.
Along with those songs came all the usual beats of a Chromeo show: The intro of fans chanting, “Chro-me-o!” to the tune of the Winnie Guards’ theme from The Wizard of Oz; Dave1 reflecting beams of light with his chrome guitar; P-Thugg using his talk box to get the crowd to scream and to fill in for Chromeo’s collaborators, including La Roux, DRAM, and Chaz Bear from Toro y Moi.
Sadly, none of the clever cuts from 2020’s Quarantine Casanova have made it into the band’s live rotation. What remains, though, is a uniquely cheeky act that knows how to keep the disco vibes alive.
For a full list of Chromeo’s upcoming tour dates and to purchase tickets, visit the duo’s website.
Chromeo – Shrine Auditorium And Expo Hall – Los Angeles, CA – 10/1/23
[Video: Carlos Alonzo]
