While Electro-Clash may be dead in other cities, it was alive and thriving last night at The Boat. Crystal Castles was releasing their CD, Kids On TV were dressed up like monsters and Angie Reed stole the show.

Angie, who hates the electro-clash label, performed songs from her album X,Y,Z Frequency while interacting with a video screen. It was as much animated video art as music. But this is probably to be expected. She is an accomplished visual artist who was just stopping in Toronto before her art show in Cincinnati.

I had a chance to speak with her at The Drake and learned that her half-hour set was only a portion of the whole seventy minute performance. Over sushi she told me that X,Y,Z is actually a concept album involving tricksters, aliens, parallel universes, the afterlife and a mythical land in the Bermuda Triangle. And I just thought it was a bunch of great songs.

She got her start in music by forming an Elvis Club in a Bavarian village when she was a child. She has since learned to play several instruments, learn a little computer programming and make some of the oddest music around, which she describes as "a concoction of disco, hip-flop, electronic trash, garage-punk and country."

But it's her live show that reveals the depth of her talent. Only accompanied by a computer and a screen she is an engaging and fun spectacle. I only wish that I had the chance to see the whole performance. Hopefully she'll be back in Toronto before too long. (I can't stand being jealous of Cincinnati.) When she returns, I doubt that she'll be playing such a small venue.