Pitchfork

Photos by Tyler Grisham and Steve Mizek

If you've ever wondered why Chicago seems to have trouble booking big electronic acts, it may have something to do with the fact that nobody here dances. About half an hour into his nearly two-hour set, Norwegian sensation Hans-Peter Lindstrøm had a little too much breathing room in front of his makeshift booth at the Funky Buddha Lounge. It was, oddly enough, probably the only dancefloor in town packed full of dudes-- most of the ladies stayed huddled in back-- for at least half the night. But as one spacey composition segued seamlessly into another, Lindstrøm's fingers tapping and twinkling his midi controller over the pounding, osciallating bass rhythms, slowly the crowd snuck to the fore.

By the end of the evening, as the hit "I Feel Space" seemed to emerge of its own accord from the waning synths of "Contemporary Fix", the disco ball and neon lights flashed to life and, finally recognizing a riff, the crowd gathered in front of Lindstrøm's laptop for one last dance. It took most of the night, but the globe-trotting DJ (who's off to Japan next month after only three dates in the U.S.) won over the chilly Chicago crowd, and warmed us up for a particularly danceable season of electronic artists on their way to the Windy City.











Lindstrøm:

02-09 San Francisco, CA - Mezzanine *
02-10 Brooklyn, NY - Studio B
03-17 Tokyo, Japan - Club Yellow #

* with Carl Craig, TK and ML Tronik
# with Prins Thomas