The Wexner Center is ready to shake up its autumn black box concert series with tonight’s presentation of the Electroclash Festival Tour. Spinning off from the popular Brooklyn festival, this tour features Electroclash favorites Peaches, W.I.T., Tracy and the Plastics, DJ Larry Tee and Chicks on Speed.
Festival organizer DJ Larry Tee planted the seeds of the festival in early 2001 when he started spinning ’80s synth-pop records on Saturday nights at his Williamsburg, Brooklyn club called “Luxx.” The popularity of the weekly event grew so quickly it soon included Friday nights as well. In addition to the ’80s classics, Tee started spinning fresh new electro artists from Brooklyn, Detroit and Europe, who would spawn the new genre, “Electroclash.”
“The difference between electro and what is referred to as electroclash is that these artists really want to put on a show – it’s not just vacant beats,” Tee said.
All of the tour’s artists are known for their provocative and unusual performances.
“The sexual energy of Peaches, the politics of Chicks on Speed or the campy, drag show that is W.I.T. – so many of these characters are what turned me on to try to stir up trouble in musicland,” Tee said.
Karen Simonian, spokeswoman for the Wexner Center, said the tour is sure to shake things up in Columbus.
“The electroclash bands are certainly in a different style – it’s like nothing we’ve had here before. It’s a highly anticipated event because it is such a phenomenon,” she said.
Peaches, the tour’s headliner, is notorious for her sexually charged electro-rhythms and do-it-yourself attitude. Without any formal musical training she wrote, produced and mixed her album, “The Teaches of Peaches,” entirely by herself.
Her erotic persona and musical style have been influenced by an array of artists and performers including the Cramps, the Runaways, the Pretenders, John Waters and Gilda Radner.
“Sexuality has always been a part of music and you certainly get that from Peaches,” said Charles Helm, director of performing arts for the Wexner Center. “What she’s doing really fuses with a lot of performance art stuff.”
Berlin-based Chicks on Speed are considered to be performance artists because they offer art and fashion as the main focus of their act.
“They really started out as sort of fashion designers and came up with the band as a way to promote their style. Eventually they decided if they’re going to have this band, they should make a record, and if they make a record they should go on tour,” Helm said.
“It’s brought some of the sexiness and style back into the scene,” he said.
Brooklyn favorites W.I.T. along with Tracey and the Plastics helped to solidify Williamsburg’s growing music scene.
“W.I.T. – which stands for ‘Whatever it Takes’ – is being fast-pitched as the next big group to come out of electroclash,” Helm said. “They’re being compared to Blondie for their style and of course vocals.”
In the past couple of years, much of New York’s rock scene has shifted from Manhattan to Williamsburg. Electroclash artists are just some of the many new musicians to call Williamsburg home.
“I think a lot of the nü rock and electroclash came from the fact that there’s more room to practice and set up your studio (in Brooklyn),” Tee said.
Tonight’s show is one of about a dozen stops on the Electroclash Festival tour schedule, which started on Oct. 11 in New York City. The show begins at 9 p.m. tonight on the stage of Mershon Auditorium. Tickets are for standing room only and cost $16 to the public and $14 for students and members.
