The Juan MacLean, Amsterdam

The Juan Maclean

May 10th 2009

Perhaps one is familiar with The Neverending Story (you know, that one about the boy and the flying mutt), well, I’ve got another one.

Yes, the set last night of electronic act The Juan MacLean only lasted about an hour, not anything to get rapturous about, but when they started with ‘Happy House’ there was no stopping the New York foursome, for this live occasion including Nancy Whang (LCD Soundsystem), excluding Holy Ghost! drummer Nick Millhiser, including Jerry Fuchs with a nifty moustache. They did an extended version of that twelve minute epic for arguably less people.

It seems as if the band has just arrived from the airport, luggage actually begin carried through the small hall of Paradiso during the soundcheck. Sunday nights are not the most popular ones for Dutch concertgoers, as probably a higher percentage of the students can travel for free during weekdays, not so much weekends (you can choose one of the two to travel for free). Even the ones that can travel for free, or are willing to pay up (tripling the original ticket price, which says something about both, but more about the fare) aren’t really there. The start time is bumped to 23:00 officially, an additional twenty minutes later unofficially, meaning that unless you live in Amsterdam, you just won’t be getting home (and thanks for that…). So if the crowd, part fans, part early birds for the club night Zonde!, look kind of few in numbers, well, there you go. All the more room for dancing then.

Dancing, namely, is not merely a possibility, but it is almost a must as the band is a house machine non-stop. One track after another just hits the dancefloor, with only the melancholic and slightly slower paced ‘The Station’  giving a slight rest for legs and flailing limbs. Songs from the new album, including the most recent single ‘One Day’, are put alongside songs from the first album, Less Than Human. One of those older songs is a vicious rendition of ‘Give Me Every Little Thing’, which gets a particularly raucous response from the gathered crowd. Curiously, the title track seems absent, but plenty of other new songs are played, perhaps less manically than the aforementioned older song, but danceable no less.

Then John MacLean makes a rare trip to the mic stand for some very slight banter, mainly introducing the last song of the set as being called ‘Seven Gateways To Hell’, which to the more perceptive is rather quickly unmasked as the 2008 single ‘Happy House’, the closing track on The Future Will Come. And really, that one leaves most other bands slightly embarrassed. If you had not yet exhausted your body fully on the previous songs, this one will do the trick with a twenty minute electronic bliss coming over you. It induces mass dancing, or more aptly put, it demands it, and in such a way it is just a moustache short of leading a totalitarian regime. Just when you feel your legs giving way and you hear the tempo drop, the band builds it right back up again (mind you, this is after they already have been playing it for a quarter of an hour), and everyone gives dancing another go. Oh yes, and there was an encore to boot.

This gig was the last date of a European tour, and if you fancy a bit of dancing you might want to wonder why you were at home when they were playing a venue near you the, and you better make a post-it reminder to make sure you are there the next time around. The whole set was a treat, danceable and the way they extend the songs is very tight. It is a party, a carnival with no end. And when you think it has, they just build ‘Happy House’ right back up again to make sure the party goes on. Actually, if you live near, pop on by, I actually think they might still be playing that ‘Happy House’ tune. And be sure to bring your kid so you can witness it growing up during the song.

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