NEW YORK — At their only U.S. headlining appearance this year, the Chemical Brothers subtly sprinkled versions of their own tracks throughout a blistering four-hour DJ set on Saturday night that ran the gamut of techno styles.
Spinning everything from thumping big beat to acid-drenched electro to mesmerizing minimal mayhem, the Chemicals’ Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons managed to incorporate some of the raucous, unpredictable energy of their live performances into the DJ format during the show, at the stuffed nightclub Centro-Fly.
The duo were celebrating the November 21 release of the seven-song Music: Response EP, which features the title track from the duo’s 1999 hit album Surrender[RealAudio], a previously unreleased song and remix; two cuts recorded live at this year’s Glastonbury Festival in England, which they headlined; and a video of the Surrender single “Let Forever Be." The Chems will also DJ Tuesday night in New York, when they will open for U2 at Irving Plaza. Bono showed up at Centro-Fly late Saturday night, but eschewed the main room’s dance floor in favor of the club’s Tapioca Room VIP area. With only their bobbing heads visible inside the DJ booth — Simons’ characteristically focused expression contrasting with Rowlands, who sported a camouflage rain hat that nearly usurped his trademark sunglasses and blissful grin, with his long blond locks creating a sort of Shagg E. Dawg effect — the pair fashioned a series of smaller sets out of gradual rhythmic builds that rose to their crowd-pleasing peak, then descended after each into slightly deeper, darker terrain. The dance floor, ravenous from the get-go, responded collectively to the duo’s seemingly effortless mixing and tweaking of effects. The night’s most dramatic moments came when the duo employed their turntable mastery for a bit of aural trickery. Teasing the audience’s ears by sneaking into the mix snippets of their best dancefloor tracks, songs such as “It Doesn’t Matter” and “Out of Control,” Rowlands and Simons created a tangible air of expectation for their hits, then supplied a unique payoff by playing slightly altered remixes of the popular tracks. It was a testament to their dedication to pleasing a crowd, which they know expects more than a rehash of classic cuts.
The Chemical Brothers have established a reputation for transporting crowds to that much-heralded “next level” that has hooked thousands on the dance-music narcotic, and Saturday night contained its share of those moments. The night’s climaxes were marked mostly by unifying anthems of years recent and past, including the ubiquitous but seemingly immortal anthem of 1999 and 2000, DJ Rolando’s “Knights of the Jaguar,” which followed on the heels of a rousing spin of the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” a staple of the Chemicals' DJ sets and live shows. “Kittens,” an epic cut from Underworld’s 1999 LP Beaucoup Fish, kicked in about three hours into the duo’s set, and its extended ambient-texture breakdown halfway through helped carry the crowd toward their finish. Rowlands and Simons are among electronic music’s most modest stars, and they opened and closed their set accordingly, with little fanfare. They took to the decks by mixing into the previous DJ’s last record, and at 4 a.m. they simply passed the beat on to the next DJ, who continued on into the wee hours of the night.
