Calvin Harris @ the Echo, 9.14.07

The Echo is a dying venue. Ever since the basement Echo Plex was opened, the upstairs has been rapidly decaying. It's small, hot, dank, poorly lit, and pretty poorly planned out. It's difficult to move around, even to dance, and for some bizarre reason, the place is always loaded with killjoys (I was knuckled in the back at least fifty times last night ... for dancing too much? No idea ... )

But, but, but ... Calvin Harris revived the Sunset Blvd. club on Friday night, and may have been the source for the most energetic, jumpy, and dance-y crowd I've ever witnessed there. The Echo is usually filled with rigid hipsters who nary dance nor move, although they'll occasionally sip their PBR when even they get bored by their inactivity. However, Friday night was filled with crazy, out-of-control Calvin Harris fanatics, clearly overjoyed to see their idol hit North American shores for the first time.

The Dumfries, Scotland native brought along a solid band (although his guitarist ran into visa troubles and was replaced at the last minute by "Fruit-enant Captain Zesty" from L.A., a stocky keyboardist clad in citric-themed skinny jeans, AA t-shirt, scarf, and headband), and impressed all from the first minute he bounced up on stage to his final farewell.

If nothing more, Calvin Harris has a phenomenal stage presence. For someone who doesn't play an instrument for more than a third of the time he's up on stage, Mr. Harris convinced all that he was (a) ridiculously cool and hip in his own unique, mildly dorky sort of way, (b) worth staring at for an hour mostly for his sexy Scottish accent, mesmerizing handling of his mic, and original blend of disco dancing and spasmodic jumping. Check out some of the shots I got here or view the slideshow after the jump!!

Calvin Harris - Acceptable In the 80s
Calvin Harris - Merrymaking At My Place