by Casey Welsch

Whenever The Show is the Rainbow — Darren Keen — plays a show, it's a party. That's a guarantee. But on those rare occasions when TSITR plays a show to release more experimental electronic dancefloor insanity, it's more like a full-scale riot.

Keen dropped his latest LP last night at Lincoln's Bourbon Theatre to a packed dancefloor of rowdy hometown fans — well, sort of. The albums weren't ready, or something. But no matter. He played the new album, Tickled Pink, in its entirety, and stayed on stage as little as possible.

The Show doesn't like stages — no one knows why. He uses stages as places to store his computer and projector, but he performs on top of the crowd. Once The Show hit the dancefloor and proceded to bounce off anyone in his way, the scene got harried in a hurry. It seemed like the entire crowd joined in, bouncing balloons, running around and banging their heads. But no one out head bangs the man with the long red hair.

The music from Tickled Pink is a definite step forward for TSITR. It seemed impossible that Keen's music could get any more energetic and disjointed, but he doesn't seem the type to let impossibility hinder him. The energy is cranked way up on every track. There isn't even a second to pause for breath. The beats run at you like an angry mob, the lyrics plead with you to smoke weed and not vote.

It's insanity.

But it's a kind of wonderful insanity that you can dance to. It's the kind of insanity that manifests when one man's genius appears as madness to the duller masses.

And speaking of madness, by the time this review gets published, Keen and his recently-betroathed wife, Lacey, will be on the road for Leg 1 of their 10-month honeymoon tour.

The man is insane, and it shows on the new record. From start to finish, the new music is 666 BPM-cool and everything you could ever want from a TSITR release, and the release show reflected this.

The crowd was as crazy as Keen, and that only fed the madness. When the projector broke, he broke his set. It doesn't matter, as long as there's the music. Even when the dancefloor devolved into a full-blown mosh pit, Keen was still in party mode, being knocked about by his fans as he entertained them.

You can download the new album here for free (though you should donate for the cause). Keen says the vinyl LP is coming soon.

Casey Welsch is a Hear Nebraska editorial intern. He drank too much at this show. Contact him at caseywelsch@hearnebraska.org.