MUSIC

-- Pamela Murray Winters

Tosca

Tosca is an electronica duo featuring DJ Richard Dorfmeister and his classically trained piano partner, Rupert Huber. On Sunday, the band's 9:30 club show, under the "Dwell Dell Sound System" banner, was supposed to be a huge affair: Four hours long! Amazing light show! Wicked live band!

Well, there was no live band. The closest things were when Huber meandered through a 40-minute ambient keyboard solo to begin the event and MCs Rob Gallagher and Tweed chanted over a Dorfmeister DJ set. Meanwhile, the psychedelic images Fritz Fitzke projected on a screen over the stage didn't stimulate sensory overload, and the gig lasted a mere three hours -- though that was plenty.

So rather than being the mind-bending techno extravaganza it was purported to be, Tosca's "performance" -- Dorfmeister and Huber never actually played music together -- felt more like a tiny li'l rave, which seemed to suit the crowd at the less-than-full club just fine.

But Huber's electric-piano performance was self-effacing to a fault. As he tinkled away, images of human silhouettes, stars and jungles danced above his head. In fact, the projections were the only things dancing at that point; the audience just chatted away as the background music remained there.

Things picked up considerably when Dorfmeister got behind the wheels of steel -- or rather CD players built for disc jockeys -- and the Austrian proved why he's such an in-demand DJ and remixer. For most of the next two hours Dorfmeister blended techno, dub and big beat in a seamless dance-floor construction that pumped up the party. But as the music began to slow and the midnight hour approached, the audience began to thin. A set-ending, and seemingly unironic, spin of the Beatles' "Come Together" sent the crowd scurrying off into the night.

-- Christopher Porter