If you don’t know what Chiptune is yet, and you played video games on some of the earliest gaming consoles (or you’re just a gamer geek in general), you’re in for a treat. Take all the joyous nostalgia of your favorite retro gaming music, then cram that like stuffing down the turkey gullet of fun, awesome dance music and you’ll start to get the idea. It’s a great scene, full of genuinely nice, enthusiastic people. If you like to dance, and you enjoy electronic music (and maybe you’re just not that into the club/party scene) then Chiptune might be right up your alley.
The Denver Chiptune Society threw an impromptu show at the Mercury Cafe in Denver last night, and rocked the audience down to their nerdy, 8-bit cores. The night started off with The Ghost Servant, followed by EZKL, Aethernaut, and Champion—all Denver locals. There was an impressive variety of musical implements on stage throughout the night: iPhones, guitars, Gameboys, keyboards, electric drums, but taking the cake had to be Aethernaut’s MIDI-compatible violin, custom-built in 8-bit style (pictured above). It is, without a doubt, one of the coolest things you’ll ever see on a stage, and he rocks it like a champ.
As one enthusiast explained to me last night: Chiptune is more a style than a genre, and any genre can be created and performed in the Chiptune style. That said, most of the show last night was uptempo with strong, danceable beats—and the crowd was loving it. The dance floor was such a purely joyful display, no one was dancing to impress anyone else, and no one was judging anyone else, everyone was there to have a good time and a good time was had by all.
The Mercury Cafe is a cool place; restaurant downstairs, with a little venue and satellite bar upstairs. It was only five bucks at the door for entry, and well worth it. It wasn’t a typical set up for a show, though: for an additional fiver you could get all-you-can-eat access to a small, vegan buffet. The room was set with tables and chairs, leaving ample space between the stage and the seating for the riotous dancing that was sure to ensue, and there was plenty of self-serve water pitchers by the bar—no five-dollar bottles of water at this gig!
One unique thing about Chiptune artists, at least the Denver Chiptune guys: during certain songs they can hop off stage and dance with the rest of the crowd. They’re better showmen than you might expect, being that they’re a bunch of guys who grew up on video games, and their enthusiasm for their own and each other’s music is completely genuine. As EZKL said, “That’s basically how I make my music. I just keep working on a track until I start dancing.”
It’s a brand new scene, and one worth supporting. They need all the love they can get, so if dance music with a retro gaming edge sounds like something you might be interested in, definitely keep an eye on the Denver Chiptune Society’s Facebook page and Twitter feed for upcoming shows. On the other hand, if you happen to be a Chiptune artist yourself, looking for a group to get associated with and maybe get in on some shows, then drop these guys a line.
Plus, if you get in on DCS now, then in the future you’ll have the hipstery right to say you were into it before it was popular.