Let's play word association! "Pandas" — cute. "Sarah Palin" — librarian porn. "Boston clubs" — gold chains, yuppy dress code, hulking bouncer, red velvet walls, girls dancing in cages and a gigantic aquarium with exotic-looking fish.
Blacked-out idiots spilling expensive brightly colored drinks on my sneakers. An experience so comically unpleasant it should be in a Ben Stiller movie — only slightly funnier. Hell.
I'm not sure why I thought seeing glitch-hop producer edIT was worth subjecting myself to this associative nightmare. Maybe it was one of the many fond memories I have of seeing edIT perform his spastic crunky beats with his partners in the Glitch Mob. Maybe it was my burning desire to finally, FINALLY hear his "I'm in Love wit a Stripper" remix live.
Whatever the reason, I jumped when I saw that edIT was coming to a club I'd never been to, and I started gearing up for an evening of forward production, fist-pumping bass, and d-bags with fake tans.
I was, at first, pleasantly surprised.
Just looking at the chain smokers posted up outside The Good Life, a club near the Downtown Crossing T stop, helped quiet my second guesses. Apparently, The Good Life doesn't have a dress code as much as a uniform: fitted hats, sneakers, track jackets/hoodies, which is fine with me because that was exactly what I was wearing/wear at all times (also to bed).
It got better. When I approached the scraggly, pimpled kid at the door to see if he could direct me to the terrifying bouncer so I could pay and get inside, he said that he was in charge. I handed him my measly $5 (!) and entered into a velvet-less, cage-less room. Instead of manta rays and cuttlefish, The Good Life had two TVs on the wall, both of which were showing baseball.
At this point in my evening, The Good Life had so thoroughly defied my expectations, relieving my fears and opening my mind, that I decided to celebrate with a drink. Just as I was about to ask for the fruitiest, neon-est beverage possible, I saw something that shocked and delighted me more than all of the evening's other revelations combined, squared: The Good Life served Schlitz; IN TALL BOYS! Oh Boston, what splendor this city holds! What could possibly spoil this timeless night?!
edIT.
Something that apparently got lost in my panicked shuffle before this show is that I've seen edIT several times before, and every show has been almost identical. Inexplicably, despite his disgusting amount of talent, edIT has been recycling roughly the same 90-ish minute set at least since I first saw him in 2006.
I realized why at The Good Life. 2007 edIT was the same as 2006 edIT, which, not shockingly, was the same as 2008 edIT. "Artsy," Straight Heat," The Sirens," "Back Up Off the Floor;" they were all there two years ago, and they're all still here, and they all sound the same.
Where's the old stuff? Where are the remixes? Where are any number of things that would both represent the man's tremendous abilities and indicate that he gave a rat's behind about performing them? His whole set reeked of disinterest, something that left a gross taste in my mouth.
Music aside, I had a great night painting the town brown. After three years of seeing shows in Boston, I found something I have truly never seen before: a comfortable, not-at-all lame club that books awesome electronic musicians (producers anyway). I found a new place that I like going to, a new niche in the city I live in and a new way to look at the local live music scene. And the best part: not one gold chain!
