Mietze Conte, an Austrian-based electronic hyperpop soloist, made his Levitation debut at the 29th Street Ballroom and had fellow Texans two-stepping, head-bopping and screaming stim noises you would make when you realize you have not talked for five hours.
Walking into this experience, I came in completely blindsided. I was greeted by him screaming “AUSTIN!” several times, and bam. The instant movement from the crowd was similar to the SpongeBob rave episode. It was like a collective agreement that everyone would immediately start dancing the second he played one singular note. From where I was standing, the speakers were blasting the perfect amount directly into my delicate ears. In typical fashion, I forgot to bring my earplugs and could already hear the reaping of tinnitus calling my name.
Mietze Conte’s impeccable way of getting the crowd hyped was truly something that made his performance memorable to me. Everyone danced, chanted along with him and at times made monkey noises with him. He is a solo man holding the crowd in a trance at the tips of his fingers. Somewhere in the middle of his set, he played a song that could not get me to stop moving. My bangles, boots and hair were all making noise that somehow complimented the tempo of this dream-esque song. It was as if my body was also an instrument.
I pulled out my phone to find the song on Shazam, very discreetly,of course. To no avail, I could not find anything. I did my intense research after the show to listen to his amazing discography and found out that the song was titled “d(-*-)b dreaming of your latte art d(-*-)b.” Finding the title made my shoulders relax and ultimately made me look back at the experience and find it even more memorable.Now, when people ask what my favorite song from his set was, I will mention the latte art, and people will either agree with me or think I’m just in the mood for a nice couple of espresso shots poured over oat milk, perhaps with a fun design to accompany the froth.
We had the opportunity to ask him a couple of questions after the set after he kindly saw our KVRX banner. I asked him if he would like to chat, and he excitedly replied that he would love to. There were smiles all around. Even after leaving the stage, Mietze Conte still had the same energy he brought to his set. He was genuinely excited to talk, and it made sense why he was able to get an entire room of people to dance, chant and make hoopla noises with him.
I came into the set completely blind, not really knowing what I was walking into. But by the time I left, I had a new song stuck in my head, a new artist to obsess over and a very real fear that I should probably start carrying earplugs with me.