XLR8R magazine celebrates its lucky 13

One of the biggest surprises at this year's Noise Pop Festival was the performance of local supergroup Honeycut. Featuring vocalist Bart Davenport, keyboardist R.V. Salters, and percussionist Tony Sevener, the band made headliner/labelmate Curumin's set seem positively anticlimactic by comparison. Davenport strutted with a cocky self-assurance that complemented his emotion-wrenching vocals; Salters' mind-blowing organ runs made the lack of a guitarist a nonissue; and Sevener's live MPC-playing provided minimalistic, yet expansive beats in place of a traditional drum kit. The scary thing was, Noise Pop marked Honeycut's first official live show, which bodes extremely well for its return engagement (also featuring Bing Ji Ling and Nino) on Thursday, May 18, at Café Du Nord at 9 p.m. Admission is $10; call 861-5016 or visit www.cafedunord.com for more info.— Eric K. Arnold

Dan Monick

A-Trak.

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More About

• Kanye West
• Tony Sevener
• Bart Davenport
• Bing Ji Ling
• Vivian Host

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Born out of the Seattle rave scene in 1993, XLR8R magazine has since earned an international reputation for breaking cutting-edge music, from dancehall to dance-rock. Much of its success came after publisher Andrew Smith moved XLR8R to San Francisco, so there's no better place to commemorate the electronic music guide's lucky 13 years. With current editor Vivian Host holding down the fort in the New York office, mixing duties will be performed by former content head Tomas Palermo and acclaimed London broken beat producer Domu, who are expected to cook up astute blends of dance floor classics and cuts so new they'll still be bleeding. XLR8R celebrates its anniversary on Friday, May 19, at Duplex at 9 p.m. Admission is $10; visit www.xlr8r.com for more info.— Tamara Palmer

As a teenager, Montreal's A-Trak (Alain Macklovitch) set some amazing records in the annals of battle DJing. At age 15, he became the youngest person to win the prestigious DMC World DJ Championship, and nine years later is still the only jock to take both of the world's other major DJ titles (at the Vestax and ITF Championships, respectively). A-Trak has also become Kanye West's official DJ and a major part of West's stage shows. It's proved to be a solid and immeasurably entertaining partnership as A-Trak flows alongside West's spontaneous performances. This tour (sans West) is named "Sunglasses Is a Must" after A-Trak's forthcoming DVD of road highlights. Brooklyn DJs Cosmo and Ayres of the mash-up kingpin collective The Rub will also bring their infectious beats to the party on Friday, May 19, at BOCA at 9 p.m. Call 777-4278 or visit www.blasthaus.com for more info.— T.P.