I hate the idea that "Seattle crowds don't dance"—that we're uptight, that we're too white, that we're no fun, that we're just too much of a "rock" town—because I've seen Seattle crowds tear a dance floor the fuck up time and time again, for disco, for techno, for house, for dance-punk. But if you wanted anecdotal evidence for the old stiff, standing still Seattlite stereotype, you couldn't have done better than last night's sold-out Four Tet show at Chop Suey.

ER Don had the early opening set, and anyway they were on more of a cerebral, jazzy tip, so it was no surprise the crowd was mostly polite head nodding for them. But then Nathan Fake came out to a rapidly filling room and lead his set with hard-punching, up-tempo kick drum—to still no response whatsoever. By the time Four Tet went on, the room was so packed that even if people had wanted to move (which, again, it didn't seem like they did), they might have had a tough time of it. Still, for a sold-out show, the energy level was just ridiculously low.

(It just occurred to me: this album is kind of Four Tet's biggest crossover album into the world of "indie"/pitchfork canon, right? Kind of a sister record to that new Pantha Du Prince album. Could that crossover, and its resulting generalist audience be to blame for the lackluster crowd participation?)

So, fine—tough crowd. How was the music?

Locals ER Don frankly stole the show, with both the best sounding set and the best live setup. ER Don's Robert Nelson records his own live electric/acoustic instrumentation into his trusty Akai MPC sampler and then chops his recordings up live to great effect. Last night, he added a Moog analog synthesizer and a laptop (sequencing the synth, I'm guessing) to his usual setup, he had his different instrument outputs routed through the appropriate amps—guitar samples through guitar amps, bass through a bass amp, etc—and he was joined on live drums by Tyler Swan of Foscil/Truckasauras. The result was the most full, live sounding set than I've ever heard from ER Don, eschewing jarring fragmentation for cohesive jams. The guitar and bass sounded like they were being played by phantom musicians onstage, the analog synth was bright and slippery with portamento. It all sounded less like a producer edging towards a full band by adding a drummer and more like a full band condensed and evoked via MPC. They really made themselves a fine match for Four Tet's eclectic and expert sound—there were jazzy, off-kilter loops; there was motorik guitar riffing; there were miniature echos of Battles' weirdo prog funk (call them Skirmishes?). And it all sounded clear and powerful, with the bass rattling the windows.

Nathan Fake played frippy, pretty techno that alternated between kinetic minimal and sweeping trance. At first, as noted above, it was anchored to a heavy, pounding bass beat, but after several minutes of dishing that out to an arms-crossed crowd, he dropped it and played a couple passages of beatless, free-floating melodic synth parts. He picked it back up for the end of his set, but I'm not sure how it went over.

Sadly, Four Tet had maybe the worst sound of the night. Whether due to the natural baffling provided by a fully crowded room or just a bad mix, his set sounded muffled and quiet, the bass rumbling but not rattling, the highs and mids lost in the murk. Now, I don't expect headphone-quality sound every time I go to a live show, but music as detailed and delicate as the stuff on his excellent new album There is Love in You demands a clearer mix than it got last night. Disappointing.

Anyway, here's an oldie but a goodie for the squares who don't dance: