#TechnoFriday - Lady Starlight and Surgeon Live (Opening set for Lady Gaga)
Welcome to my entry in this weeks #technofriday, our hashtag designed to highlight our favorite techno excursions for the week.
Today, I'm throwing up a bizarre yet amazing moment in Techno: the much talked about combination of underground techno legend Surgeon with Lady Starlight as the opening act of Lady Gaga.
Surgeon isn't exactly someone with pop appeal. Pretty much the opposite. So how did he end up joining with Lady Starlight for a blistering set of atonal techno opening for Gaga's tour?
Honestly, it's pretty serendipitous. Lady Starlight just happened to be performing as her opening act in Birmingham when she toned down the music for a second to shout out the artist Surgeon who was from Birmingham, one of the artists that inspired her in her musical career. Little did she know that Surgeon was actually in the audience with his wife and after introducing himself after the show, sparked a friendship that lead to this uniquely absurd moment happening: the confrontation of the underground brushing right up against the pop elite. The fact that this happened so organically is what makes this so special here.
I want to make a point here that I don't want to devalue Lady Starlight's contribution to this. Her story here is honestly more important that Surgeon's as she did the heavy work of subverting expectations and making this moment happen. Her conversation is a larger one about the barriers created by culture and the difficulties of establishing authenticity in a scene filled with elitism, but Resident Advisor has addressed it better than I ever could, so I'll link it here.
https://www.residentadvisor.net/features/2934
With that said, enjoy this moment of pure authentic underground techno that exists in a rare snapshot of time.
Joining #TechnoFriday again this week - resteemed
Lady Gaga is well known from her controversial decisions, so booking a Lady Starlight with a techno warm-up opening set shouldn't shock anybody. A bit more than a year ago I have been on the Trentemoller live, and as a warm-up we had a drone/idm/noise/ambient/modular music liveact. Well, Trentemoller and Lady Gaga are on the completely different artistic levels, but I just want to show a point that we do not live in early 90's anymore, and actually we have a lot of hype around techno in the recent years . Unbelievable how many small coincidences have a huge impact on our lifes. Lady Starlight should be lucky that she opened her mouth back then at the stage, giving props for Surgeon. And also a big up for him for breaking the canvas and going into pop culture without loosing his image.
Good point with Trentemoller. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing him 6 times live and it has been really interesting seeing his sound expand and those cross pollinating of genres. I think what interests me with Gaga/Starlight/Surgeon is how for a moment it was both absurd and organic. Both grinding in the face of pop expectations and totally natural. I think at times there is a cynicism that can develop around techno’s place in the industry and for a brief moment it was completely cut through by this. I love it.
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such a interesting article ! To be honest I feel a bit sceptical about techno legend attending at this kind of event
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