It’s a Thursday night in Austin all seems quiet downtown except for the usual city sounds of cars and live music yet you can hear a faint sound of a house bass line along 7th St. I don’t know what it is about the 125 bpm in house music that just gets me going. Following that bass line, my friend Peyton and I made our way into an alleyway behind the venue where we’d be greeted with red tape covering our phone cameras.
Lane 8 kicked off his tour at Ironwood Hall on January 25th, 2018 (aka my first show of the year). When I heard he was coming, I instantly bought a ticket fully aware of his new album being released soon after. His new album Little by Little was released on January 19th perfectly setting the stage of what his show would be like. The week of I got word that Lane 8 was specifically asking to reduce phone usage/recording at his show titling this event concept as “This Never Happened”. You know that saying where “if you didn’t take any pics or vids were you even there?” I assume that’s what Lane 8 was hinting to. After reading his explanation why, I was excited to not focus on my phone for once. We are so attached to our phones these days that any chance I get to disconnect from it, I do. Here’s what happened.
Ironwood Hall has a certain warehouse (it’s not a warehouse but felt like I was in one) dark ambiance to it. There was very little lighting except spotlights on the stage and the staging wasn’t anything huge. There was also no visual screens. Both the local openers, Illton Bradley & Kai Castro, played sets more on the deep house side. The opener right before Lane 8, Kai Castro, definitely brought the energy up to prepare for Lane 8 where everyone was grooving and shuffling along.
Once Lane 8 came on I noticed something interesting that I had never experienced. The energy level was high from front to back, everyone was excited and dancing as Lane 8 opened. I realized that when you take away the energy we place into this tiny little device, we were able to put our energy outwards towards each other and towards the artist. We weren’t worrying about getting a good Snapchat or a video to post later to social media. We were all existing and grooving in the present. I only had one twitch to bring my phone out (when he played “No Captain”). Otherwise I was feeling the music and shuffling my little heart out.
I was surprised by Lane 8’s set because since he just released an album so I thought he was going to play the album not really any of his older stuff. I was definitely wrong and the way he flowed between the new album and older songs was so perfect. The ambiance of the stage changed as his logo illuminated behind him and lighting that faced the crowd gave him a nice silhouette figure at times. There was never a pause or disconnect in the music which definitely transpired in the crowd as he took us on this musical journey. I heard my favorites from his new album as well as his Innerbloom remix. I really felt that I connected to his music in a better way by not worrying about what was going on with my phone. I left Lane 8’s show feeling refreshed and cleansed in a way to have experienced that energy was remarkable.
If you have the opportunity to see Lane 8, I HIGHLY encourage you to do so and to actively take part in not using your phone. Some people got caught recording and were kicked out which was unfortunate to see. Disconnect to connect. I think I want to experiment for future shows and even festivals to limit my phone usage to see what happens. Bravo to you Lane 8 for encouraging an environment like this, I am excited to see if other artists will start doing the same. Thanks for an incredible first show of 2018 and see you in the Forest Mr. Lane 8.
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