Caspa - Live at Webster Hall (NYC)

by Keelan Freitag

            "In the UK we have something called a moshpit," boasted old-school dubstepper Caspa at his Christmas Eve show in the Webster Hall of Chelsea, New York.  "Do you have that here? Do you know what a moshpit is?"

            And then it began.

            WOB WOB WOB WOB WOB as the bodies in the pit tossed each other like ragdolls.  At one point, even several female-festival-fairies (if you don't know the type, think rave girls) were seen throwing their weight around.

            But I'm getting way ahead of myself. To start this journey we must go back to the beginning of the show: sitting in a club listening to 'I'm Sexy And I Know It' by LMFAO about twenty times in the course of 3 hours.  Absolute torture.  Then came the rollers; the ecstasy mules of the night; with wide pupils that stare like the world is a television set and vision only goes in one direction.  Several times I had to tell an overzealous stranger to stop touching me and scram.  By 1:00 a.m. it was time to either hear some dubstep or get the hell out of limbo.

            Luckily, Caspa went on a half hour later.  Take it from me, walking up the marble stairs to the third floor of the Webster Hall felt like ascending out of the hell of a frat-house dance party and into the arms of a devilish angel.

            Caspa started his set with darker dub, keeping the tempo down and sticking purely to low wobbles and high female vocal style.  Girls with pacifiers and bead bracelets threw their bodies against the slow beat as guys dripping with sweat were caught headbanging. Caspa's cover of La Roux's "The Kill" was my personal highlight of the night.

Check out this vid, taken at the show!

            Halfway through the show, however, Caspa's british accent was heard over the PA system. "Lets turn up the tempo a bit. Lets get this party moving." Thus began the second half of his set, which started off with a couple Drum and Bass tracks.  Again the bodies swam and flailed around each other, caught in flashes of pure white light.  The quicker dance tempo injected a new energy, giving most in the cramped venue a second wind.

            All in all Caspa showed his true talent: injecting a crowd of animals with pure power and excitement, forcing us to rage until the early hours and trudge home sweaty and exhausted.