{"id":10661,"date":"2015-03-13T11:48:22","date_gmt":"2015-03-13T15:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/?p=10661"},"modified":"2018-08-09T17:13:06","modified_gmt":"2018-08-09T21:13:06","slug":"live-review-body-language-babys-all-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/live-review-body-language-babys-all-right\/","title":{"rendered":"LIVE REVIEW: Body Language @ Baby’s All Right"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"body-language-band\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Hump day isn\u2019t usually this sexy, but it\u2019s fashion week. I\u2019m not even fully through the door of Baby\u2019s All Right and I\u2019ve already spotted a woman with a balloon animal headband and another in a tomato cape and Zorro hat (no sign of Waldo yet-oh, there he is). And to think I almost didn\u2019t wear these sparkle pants.<\/p>\n

All this seems appropriate considering the members of Brooklyn electro-pop outfit Body Language<\/a> are no strangers to the fashion industry. In 2013 they played a show hosted by makers of brightly colored, suspiciously low-priced socks Joe Fresh. The foursome are themselves a put-together bunch, but in a way that suits their music as opposed to distracting from it. There are so many bands tangled in designer imagery these days, it\u2019s nice to see a group of talented musicians who have their priorities straight.<\/p>\n

Before Body Language could get everyone frenzied, we needed to warm up our muscles. Fortunately the night\u2019s opener was Figgy<\/a>, a.k.a Mike Ferringo, the Massachusetts-born NYC based DJ\/producer who\u2019s been making the house rounds lately. Despite the clout, he seemed to be a pretty normal guy who got as much dance out of his set as any good DJ would desire from his audience.<\/p>\n

Love or hate the genre, house remixes are still\u00a0relevant, perhaps more than ever before considering our cultural urge to hunt-hoard-curate, and Ferringo\u2019s background in Jazz is a testament to the rising craft of the remix and the resilient presence of R&B music.<\/p>\n

In a recent interview with LA Canvas, he made a simple but pertinent remark when asked to explain R&B\u2019s recent \u201ccomeback\u201d and why people love the genre so much:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe honesty of the vocals, and I don\u2019t necessarily mean lyrics. Soul music will be around forever, it\u2019s not a trend.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Figgy played for about an hour – or pushed, or programmed for about an hour. I don\u2019t really know the right verb for what DJs do these days, but whatever he did \u00a0it was great, and the crowd seemed to agree with a nod of their hips.<\/p>\n

I wish I could relay the litany of samples I recognized instantly by ear, but while I enjoyed every moment of his set, I could only pick out \u201cHeart of Glass\u201d and \u201cNo Diggity.\u201d The rest was a well-spun web of disco claps and house keys that made it impossible to stand inert. Hats off to you Mr. Figgy.<\/p>\n

I was well warmed at this point, but unable to break out of stationary head bobbing. This being the second installment of \u201cgoing to a show with the cold\/flu\u201d I was afraid to dance\u2026could dancing give me pneumonia? Typhus? Scarlett Fever? And then a more jarring question arose: When did I turn into an elder from Footloose?<\/em><\/p>\n

The great thing about dance music is that you don\u2019t have to think about these things once you hear it. It\u2019s airborne, relentless and contagious\u2026at least it was for the frontal half of the audience. Five minutes into Body Language\u2019s set there was crowd surfing, a shoe to a man\u2019s head, and the all-around pelvic gyrating our grandparent\u2019s feared. Body Language had a few technical errors in the beginning of their set, namely producer\/everything-player Grant Wheeler\u2019s Bass acting up, and producer\/vocalist\/everything-player Matt Young\u2019s levels needing to be more upward pointing.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t mean to get hyperbolic (it just happens) but this is a group of incredibly talented musicians, and that\u2019s not an overstatement. They\u2019ve managed to combine the unpretentious fun of dance music with attentive producing, landing a sound almost as exciting to listen to on headphones as it is to see live. Not a small feat.<\/p>\n

Lead vocalist Angelica Bess is in a word: charismatic. She sings with as much ease as she does professionalism. The rest of the band\u00a0was equally humble, focused and impressively proficient musically. As it turns out, this is no act. After a brief Q+A<\/a> with the group, AudioFemme discovered that the members of Body Language are not only feel-good beat geniuses-they\u2019re also super nice and down to earth. Kudos times two.<\/p>\n