by Elana Max Dahlager

On November 5th, 2010, Ithaca College's Bureau of Concerts (their answer to Fanclub, or maybe CCC) hosted their inaugural on-campus show. Who'd they bring? Why, last year's blog darling and chillwave pioneer Neon Indian, of course.

You remember Psychic Chasms, right? That album that came out last year, with the song about taking acid and Deadbeat Summer and whatnot? I have to admit something to you, dear readers. I was never that into Neon Indian. I was pretty happy when we moved past the “chillwave,” electronic aesthetic into the nitty gritty 90s revival space we live in now. Although I think we're moving back into a darkwave place (see: Twin Shadow), and that frightens me a little.

But I digress. So the show, right. It was pretty fun. The opening act was a band called Blair. The lead singer, who I'm gonna assume was Blair, was a little moody. She complained about the audio set up, and just didn't look like she was having a lot of fun. She also sounded disconcertingly like Feist. The audience, a strange mixture of bros and lil baby hipster wannabes, was not feeling it.

And then Neon Indian took the stage. After setting up what looked like about 12 different electronic implements, including a theremin (which was super exciting for me and the cute lil nerd bros  behind me), Alan Palomo and crew proceeded to put on a great big dance party. It was hard not to get into it. Deadbeat Summer was of course a crowd  pleaser. The set was fairly short, but the audience rallied together and called 'em back on stage for an encore. All in all, it was a pretty fun show.

Before the dance mania, your intrepid reporter had the chance to chat with Palomo backstage. Here are some things that I learned: Don't start an interview with a jokey question about genre if you're so nervous about talking to a real live famous person that it comes out deadly serious. See, what had happened was, that I had this great plan to start a friendly conversation about chillwave and hipsterrunoff and, you know, the lulz would commence. Instead, I got a deadly serious answer about how chillwave is not a genre that Neon Indian really embraces, because he didn't have anything to do with its conception, and he doesn't self-categorize his music because he's too close to it. Also, he gets asked that question a lot.

Then I asked him about Demi Lovato, because Demi Lovato once tweeted about Neon Indian and also now she's in rehab. I asked if it was lame or cool to have tweens be into your stuff, and learned that it is not the artist's place to dictate who listens to your music. So yeah.

I learned that he'd love to collaborate with Todd Rundgren (there's a Rundgren sample in Deadbeat Summer), and that he really loves Boards of Canada. He's going to Helsinki to record the new album. San Francisco is his favorite place to play shows, bu also Stockholm, because the audience got really crazy there.

We talked about nostalgia, and the nostalgic side of his music, and how he really just injects the stuff he loved in his childhood into what he plays. We talked about being young and successful. Dude is, like, 22. That is one year older than me. He was studying film, and put it on hiatus to become a HUGE BAND. I am studying English. I should really learn how to play an instrument.

Palomo was really nice, and put up with my stupid questions like a champ. The show was a lot of fun. I can think of worse ways to spend a Friday night.