It seems that Boulder isn’t quite ready to embrace the world of Silent Disco, judging by the poor turnout at Shine Restaurant’s event on Friday.
Hosted in conjunction with Elm and Oak, the Silent Disco featured a line-up of five local disc jockeys including Elm and Oak co-owner and Boulder favorite, Raw Russ, a.k.a. Berk Visual.
The concept of a “Silent Disco” came from festival culture, Co-Owner of Shine Restaurant and Gathering Place Jill Emich said.
“[Silent Discos] started at festivals where there were sound ordinances, you could still have the party go all night,” Emich said. “Then, people really started digging on it, especially on the East Coast and the West Coast. It started happening in clubs.”
Ross Kiser, foreground, and Matt Friedman, background, adjust the levels
during their sets on Friday. Kiser and Friedman are members of Need &
Necessity. (Sarah Elsea/CU Independent
The Silent Disco format seems like a recipe for success. Two DJs play at one time on their own tables, and patrons are given a special wireless headset at the door. Each headset is capable of switching back and forth between the two DJs’ individual frequencies, and the headphones light up either red or green to let everyone else in the room know which frequency you’re jamming out to. It becomes a sort of “friendly competition,” according to Visual and Emich.
The second round of DJs, the duo from band Need & Necessity, failed to capitalize on that competitive aspect. On the red channel was Matt Friedman, and just a quick scan across the room of bobbing heads proved Friedman the clear winner over his musical counterpart, Ross Kiser. Although Friedman laid down some funky house music that got people moving, the failure was in the similarity of the battling DJs frequencies. These two, coming from the same electronic act, failed to offer different musical styles to attendees.
Unfortunately, the crowd peaked during Need & Necessity’s set. At its fullest, there were no more than 50 dancers on the floor. These concert-goers missed one of the best sets of the night, which came from Slim Trillionaire, the red-frequency DJ playing of the first round. Even though most people were tuned into the green channel featuring “Nu-Disco,” DJ Munson Meeks, Slim’s hip-hop flavored bass music got more people shaking it on the dance floor.
Unsurprisingly, the best round of the night came in the third round between Raw Russ and Shine favorite, Mr. Gettdowne. Mr. Gettdowne, a.k.a., Matt Kapinus, is also a yoga teacher from the Yoga Pod who leads Shine’s fourth-Friday Urban Flow yoga classes. Raw Russ played his signature hip-hop inspired dub-music while Mr. Gettdowne kept it light and funky with his almost mash-up-sounding house music. The two DJs complemented each other well. Because most patrons switched back and forth continuously, neither DJ seemed to come out a victor.
The format of the Silent Disco is pretty close to perfect: patrons can control the volume of their music, the type of music they want to listen to and there’s no yelling involved in talking to your neighbor when you simply take your headphones off.
Whom or whatever you blame for the low turnout, just be sure to mourn the day that Boulder rejected one of the coolest events that’s ever been hosted on Pearl.
Contact CU Independent Senior Staff Writer Sarah.elsea@colorado.edu.