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Monday Sep 24, 2012.     By Jeff D. Min

Music Feed

Having a bill where Dam-Funk opens for Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti is an unusual sight to see, something of a stylistic anomaly—Dam with his boogie-infused, future funk, and Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti with their unrelenting, emotionally charged portraits. They both occupy a certain pocket of popular music, and although respectfully different, each has drawn influences from the same era. It showed when they took the stage.

They basked in the spotlight, looked and acted like rock gods. Dam leapt off the stage during his set, and the crowd flocked to him like some newly minted messiah. Ariel did the same, several times. He body surfed the crowd, riding the top of the wave magnanimously like the froth at the crest of a tsunami. After emerging from the crowd he would pause on stage, think for a moment, and launch himself back into the hands of his fans.

Dam reached for his keytar in his set, which was synched up to a talk box. He sang, dipping in and out of Rhythm Trax Vol. 4 and Toeachizown, which was followed by new work destined for release some time in 2013. His hands glided over the keytar one moment and synths the other—it’s easy to forget how technically precise he is.

Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti has it too. For better or worse they don’t hold back. Ariel—while pulling regularly from a bottle of white wine—rolled around the stage like a man possessed. He pouted, he moaned, and screeched in aguish. His lyrics connected. His emotions confirmed.

Ariel and Dam’s sets were at different times, but they extracted life from the same pool—their fans. They stood above the crowd like icons, but shattered the walls that stood between them. They shared emotion, and energy. They shared body heat. They were kings.