Each arena tour, each new nightclub, each festival stage, is locked in 2017’s version of an arms race: Bigger productions, bigger budgets, and bigger screens transmitting brighter visual art and graphics.
The backlash may have arrived, in the form of LightsOut, a new party from the Good Looks Collective. The few windows inside the Knitting Factory will be blacked out, all lights will be turned off, save for a light bulb above the DJ booth, and the entirety of one’s attention will be focused on one place: the set from electronic DJ Eprom.
“What we’re trying to do is remove production, the fancy lights, your phones, and then we’re bringing in a custom sound system,” says Jay Rogovin, co-owner of party organizer Good Looks Collective. “It’s really just about the sound and making people listen to the music and connect with the people around.”
amNY caught up with Rogovin to talk about dance floor collisions and picking the right DJ for darkness.
So, just how dark are we talking about?
There’s going to be one light bulb behind the DJ, and then a few dimmed lights at the bar, so people can see what they’re doing at the bar. So aside from that — and from whatever light might be let in when people are coming or going from the concert area, it’s going to be pretty black. Your eyes do adjust pretty quickly, though.
There’s a big emphasis today on the visuals that go along with dance music.
I think things are just really oversaturated, especially in larger cities like New York and LA. Everyone is here, everyone is throwing shows, with their own concepts, and obviously as technology advances so do the lights and the production. It’s kind of an homage to the underground, the dingy basements in the U.K., or in New York in the ’70s and ’80s, where it was really about the scene, the music and the people.
Why Eprom for the debut installment of the party?
Eprom is a very experimental artist, in the air of an Amos Tobin, a Squarepusher or, for a larger name, an Aphex Twin. We really feel like the music that he brings to the table is something that you do need to concentrate on and listen. It also plays very well into the speakers that we’re using. He’s the kind of artist you could sit down and listen to at a concert. We felt it was a nice match for the concept.
If you go: LightsOut is May 12 at 9 p.m. at The Knitting Factory, 361 Metropolitan Ave., Williamsburg, 347-529-6696, $20.
