Photography by Alan Duckworth
Sir Bob Cornelius Rifo presented The Bloody Beetroots Live, Chaos & Confusion World Tour at the Fillmore in Silver Spring on Saturday. The Venom-masked hardcore-dance crusader had an electronic rock ensemble highlighted with live drums and heavy bass and synth.
I first heard about the Bloody Beetroots through Dim Mak Records. The song Warped feat. Steve Aoki had the dance floors bouncing. My interpretation of the Bloody Beetroots then was that they were live dubstep. I considered them live based off the the synthesizers and drums in the Warped music video. Dubstep had been growing in popularity circa 2009 so I compared the Bloody Beetroots to that same sound and interpreted them that way.
Really The Bloody Beetroots Live is more like rocking electro-house music with elements of punk and heavy metal, and even classic rock and classical. They covered Elvis Presley’s “Hound Dog” and it was like a hardcore sock hop. Sir Bob grasped his vintage style microphone, belting “you ain’t nothing but a hound dog” just like Elvis. There were other live elements worked into the arrangement, like the drums and a baby grand piano which was actually two keyboards stacked. His setup reminded me of an organ, with the manuals set up on top of each other so the keys could be struck simultaneously. The song “Cornelius” has an organ type sound! As far as his piano playing, not exactly Denis Matsuev, but the sound works great with the drums and effects.
The liveliest element to the Bloody Beetroots set is their energy! Sir Bob jumps off platforms spinning the mic around like a helicopter. He enthusiastically led a charge of sound that got the audience hyped! I know the Bloody Beetroots do DJ sets as well, but I much prefer to hear them live. There’s just an element to that type of presentation that differentiates itself from a DJ set. DJ sets are great, but a good DJ is supposed to go unnoticed, like a good Photoshop artist. Live sets are main draws and full presentations. Electronic music is awesome in the sense the software can be utilized to make something tangible, like how architects use Auto CAD to build real structures, sound editing software can be used to build live performances with real musicians. It’s a philosophy I believe the Bloody Beetroots Live work into their sound, a need for both composers/producers and musicians.
The Bloody Beetroots take on a large variety of electronic influences and play them live, almost like a heavy metal Chromeo. It’s great! It was definitely a dubstep atmosphere if anything else. The audience was terrific! They liked to move and jump around and they had a lot of continuous non-stop music to dance too. A very fun show!
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