Concert Review: Henrik Schwarz at Electric Pickle, Friday, May 7

​Henrik Schwarz
Electric Pickle, Miami
Friday, May 7, 2010

The turnout for Henrik Schwarz's long-awaited performance on Friday night was phenomenal, and yet another epic EDM experience at the Electric Pickle. By the account of many die-hard regulars, this was one of the best sets Miami has seen in recent years, and one which won't soon be forgotten.

The action kicked off in the downstairs lounge area, where Aquabooty resident DJ Tomas laid out some rare groove, disco and funk goodies the likes of "Strawberry Letter 23" by the Brothers Johnson, a personal favorite. Next behind the decks was PL0T resident Basti, who is now moonlighting in a more hybrid indie dance style on some nights, in addition to the usual deep tech he makes his focus during PL0T's sessions.

The upstairs room got totally jam-packed during the opening sets by resident DJ Will Renuart and special guests DHM, who warmed up the crowd with a gratifying deep house and nu-disco selection. Henrik Schwarz got on around 2 a.m., armed with laptop and hardware controllers, and wasted no time in hitting a sustained peak of energy that put those voluptuous Dynacord stacks through the best workout they've had since Mathew Jonson's live set last year, probably. Between the jacking 125+ BPM, massive throbbing bass, and the wall-to-wall sea of bodies, it felt like the room was one, giant, bouncing beast, and Schwarz played to the crowd by feeding off our energy and doing his own fair share of boogieing from behind the decks.

Anyone who follows Schwarz knows that his production work and compilation mixes tend to lean towards gentler easy-listening compositions--see his avant-garde electronic jazz duets with pianist Bugge Wesseltoft. But on Friday night he pumped out a continuous string of jacked-up tech-house bangers, punctuated by his signature melodic jazz sensibility but equally unafraid of the populist and unpretentiously funky, like when he dropped a jacking uptempo rework of Michael Jackson's "Wanna Be Startin' Somethin.'" While many of us expected a mellower lounge-house set, Schwarz demonstrated he is more than capable of rising to the challenge of keeping a roomful of sweaty Miamians bouncing all night.&