The late ’70s dance scene, so very far away, especially with the ’90s now making some of us feel nostalgic, is quite tricky to recreate. Besides the shadow of AIDS that dampers the “anything goes” carnality of the era, the hipsters that wear polyester these days do it more out of sheer irony than in any attempt to succumb to the laissez faire fashion of the time.
With its 2008 self-titled debut, Hercules and Love Affair (with the help of the gorgeous pipes of Antony Hegarty) blew up the Best New Musics and the Blogospheres, hypnotizing listeners with late night jams, recalling a time of cocaine-fueled dance parties that lasted until the sun came up. With a new band in tow, Andrew Butler came to Portland’s Hawthorne Theatre and entertained a small section of the population not too cool to dance.
The fairly empty theater was filled with lovers of all types. Men and women slipped one another the tongue, gayboys rubbed crotch against backside and lesbians circled the merch table, perusing records and the white Hercules wifebeater. Butler and company have been quiet since their hit “Blind” two years ago, asides from putting out the Sidetracked collection last year. It was a foregone conclusion that Antony would not be in the building that evening, making Hercules and Love Affair’s lineup a mystery.
“Finish your drinks and come up and dance,” Butler commanded the audience that milled about the theatre’s rear bar. “That’s how it works tonight.” As many of you know, Portland clubs have to separate the drinkers from the underaged. So those looking to get drunk and sloppy would have to do so before coming up front to dance.
Butler began to do his job as DJ, filling the house with “True/False, Fake/Real.” The audience immediately began to dance, something of an oddity for the normally stoic and hip Portland concert crowd.
“Where are the girls?” Butler shouted. “Bring on the girls!” Out came Kim Ann Foxman, Aerea Negrot and Shaun Wright to sing and lead us in dance, including the reintroduction of voguing to 2010. Butler promised a mix of old and new songs and off we went.
As songs like “Athene” and “You Belong” filled the club, I took a moment to watch all the different people dancing around me. A puffy-headed, heavy dude jumped up down in place. One hippie chick danced all over the place, nearly running me over. A couple made out in the middle of the dance floor. Meanwhile, Butler and his girls kept the pace, transforming 2010 Portland into a sweaty, cavernous 1979 party that went on until the depths of the night. Even if the new version of “Blind,” done in a slower speed, lacked the triumph of the album version, Butler and his Love Affair pulled off the almost impossible: he got a room full of people in Portland to dance.
by David Harris
