Elektropolis
Jackal & Hyde w/Gen from the Genitorturers
Words: Aubrey Bramble
Photos: Michael Spadoni

June 30, 2007
Czar, Ybor City

Verdict? Worth the acid flashbacks and 15.00 cover charge for sure.

It's really quite simple: this show was rejuvenating, a true spectacle in its purest form. No shaggy, unwashed hipster hair. No overgrown beards and "vintage" Urban Outfitter tees. No pretentious social chatter. This show was all about a fluid, invigorating audio-visual assault for the mind... and body.

If you were anything like me, then you spent a good portion of the late 90s dancing the night away at an electronic music mecca like Simon's in Gainesville or at one of the many underground warehouse raves scattered throughout the Florida suburbs. Although it was just a passing phase on my road to adulthood, it was one hell of a good time. Those were the days of DJ Icey, Rabbit in the Moon, and John Digweed - glow sticks, Jncos, candy necklaces, and Vick's VapoRub optional.

To my surprise (and delight), walking into the still adolescent "Imperial Theater" at Czar was like taking an invisible time machine back to 1998. I think some of the same people I would regularly see having a molecular mindmelt on the dance floor back then were in attendance at this show, still tripping and skipping to a never-ending dance beat. Gloriously distorted images were pulsing and sliding their way down the walls and across artfully-placed video screens, lending an additional surreal flair to the already narcotic atmosphere.

The performers took the stage unfashionably late (sometime after 1:00AM), but unlike waiting for a band to appear at a rock and roll show, there was no played-out CD spinning on repeat over the PA system or the sound of yawns coming from an impatient crowd. The warm-up DJs pulled out all the electro stops and people were moving, grooving, and zoning out with glee in every corner of the room. The late start time was only a slight annoyance; the wild stage show more than made up for it.

And what a stage show it was. Not long after the godfathers of hardcore electro, Jackal and Hyde, began working their stacked synthesizers with an almost surgical precision, everyone's favorite gorgeously plasticine local deviant, Gen from the Genitorturers, bounded out to join the fun. Scantily clad in a skirt-that-is-really-a-belt, slinky fishnets, a holographic jacket and pigtails, she immediately took things to the next level with her gaggle of nearly naked tormenters-in-training and bitchin' stage presence.

A girl in a latex bikini swung on a trapeze suspended over the crowd while Gen took out some frustration on a lucky victim with a pantyhose hood. Still more girls licked and teased the ravenous onlookers with lipstick affections. And the beats grew crazier by the minute.

If that's not entertainment, I don't know what is.