Trentemøller at Rebel

In an impossibly packed room, Danish electronic darling Anders Trentemøller schooled an eager crowd with his music wizardry at Rebel NYC this past Saturday. Presented by Made Event, the show supports his release The Last Resort in a live band performance featuring his live partner DJ "Tom" Bertelsen, Henrik Vibskov on drums, Mikael Simpson on guitar/bass.

Lines formed as people waited to dance in birdcages hanging above the audience. Who knows whether they wanted a better peek at the band, were trying to escape from the sardine-packed space, or watching the strange happenings going on below them. If anything the crowd was an interesting mix, whether it was the crazy tall bloke in the scratchy wool blazer grazing people around him while he danced, or a freckled girl in plaid who got down on all fours and crawled between the sea of legs. The classic bondage S&M clips from Trentemøller's live visuals were probably a crowd cue.

The room was packed til the very end. Trentemøller could've easily transitioned between tracks as a house DJ would but instead he chose deliberate pauses in between tracks to emphasize their respective intros. The sound was a smorgasbord of genres ranging from upbeat drum and bass, tribal house, downtempo tracks and everything in between, with both programmed and live instrumentation.

Trentemøller's signature that night featured a xylophone solo.  Too edgy for a DJ performance, too light for a rock band, this was Trentemøller's sweet to bittersweet message to the world without words.

Tonight Made Event presents Marco Carola w/ Martin Buttrich (live) at Cielo, 18 Little W. 12th St.; doors open at 10pm.

Photo by Peter Philips