Dan the Automated

Our regular Spin Cycle columnist, Chris Milbourn, attended a promotional event last Thursday in Lawrence featuring Dan the Automator. Here’s his report:

Dan the Automator, best known as a producer and arranger for projects with the Gorillaz, Handsome Boy Modeling School, Dr. Octagon and the classic Deltron 3030 was to play a DJ set sponsored by Bacardi on the night of January 28th at Club Liquid in Lawrence.

When people showed their IDs at the door of Club Liquid to gain entry, they were asked to take a picture for a cameraman. “Why not, it’ll probably end up on the internet sooner or later,” I heard one girl say outside in the freezing cold. Bacardi was out in full force. It seemed as though half the people inside the club had Bacardi shirts on, handing out black top hats and shots of liquor.

Dan the Automator just wants to be loved.

Sure enough, the pictures taken at the door were rotated on TV screens around the bar in a slideshow so everyone could see themselves. Bacardi girls, dressed in scanty black outfits danced on all the illuminated, elevated platforms they could get their heels on. At times, it seemed the Aqua-drummer and Bacardi dancers were in a coordinated rhythm with the beats delivered from the DJs. Not just during the middle of a song, but even while one beat was mixed into another.