This past Saturday, I hopped on a bus to New York City to visit a friend and go see Portland-based electronic band Starfucker at The Bowery Ballroom. I agreed to go because she got tickets for her birthday and asked me to accompany her, but really I’d only listened to a few Starfucker songs ever.
I didn’t have many expectations for the show, aside from that I would probably be dancing quite a bit. Starfucker did not disappoint. I was moving throughout the entire show, whether I was dancing, jumping up and down or bopping my head.
The band came onto the stage in the medium-sized venue ready for action with their faces decked out in brightly colored paint. Band founder, vocalist and instrumentalist Joshua Hodges shone brightest, as did co-vocalist and turntablist Ryan Biornstad. Biornstad stole the show with his musical prowess and strong stage presence, which I’m 99.2 percent sure had every girl in the audience (myself included) imagining certain scenarios in their heads.
The band kept the energy up and remained lively throughout the performance, playing tunes such as “Bury Us Alive,” “Medicine,” “Astoria,” and fan favorites like “Biggie Smalls” and “Rawnald Gregory Erickson the Second.” A giant sing-along ensued upon the first notes of the band’s cover of Cyndi Lauper’s classic “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.”
The highlight of the show was when Biornstad crowd surfed at various points during the show, floating on a sea of almost too-eager hands. The band also invited audience members onto the stage for their final jam. I was lucky enough to be one of the people able to hoist themselves up on the stage and dance their pants off for all to see. The stage was full of enthusiastic fans and the band certainly played off of the excitement felt in the air.
All in all, Starfucker provided an intensely enjoyable musical experience full of grooves and moves. In Hodges’ words, check ‘em out if you dig “dance music that you can actually listen to.”