The Fist of God Tour

It was an all ages show, but the turnout for Denver’s Fist of God tour stop was struck me as impressively heavy and, well, young. Although I’ve been listening to MSTRKRFT since they were sort of DFA1979, it was more than a little stunning to see quite how many fans showed up to see them on a Tuesday night at The Ogden Theater.

Our Nina Barry was supposed to shoot the bands prior to the performance, but complications arose and she wasn’t able to cozy up until the show wrapped up in the wee hours of a school night. By then, Felix Cartal had metamorphosed into a no-photos-please prima donna and one of the members of MSTRKRFT had already split.

To his credit, Daniel Ledisko was in gracious spirits, despite having to extend his set by an extra half an hour with no warning. After what was obviously supposed to be the end of an already long DJ set, Mr. LA Riots threw on Salt-N-Pepa’s “Push It,” throwing his hands into the air in a triumphant gesture to an appreciative audience before trotting offstage tired and satisfied.

Except that the music kept playing. A good minute, two, three minutes of “Push It,” after which Daniel–told to keep things going–returns to the stage and keeps the crowd warmed up for MSTRKRFT.

As for the headliners, their set was filled with high energy, buoyed by an intense visual rig, and only slightly undermined by the fact that they managed to mix three Daft Punk songs into a ninety minute performance. (Come on boys: homage is one thing, but sycophantism and complacency are wholly different fruits.)

Their manager–a quintessential Lost Angeleno from leather jacket to tacky hat–was apologetic about being unable to accommodate things as originally planned and vowed to set up a shoot time the next day. Alas–his call never came, so the pickings are slimmer than usual.

Taste the drum machine: