Somewhere along the line Infected Mushroom decided to become a rock band: they’re touring with a drummer and a guitarist, and Duvdev has swapped his keyboard for a microphone to play front man. It’s an interesting change. Live vocals on every track? Rock guitar, wailing away on the solos? This is not nineties psytrance. It’s still fun, it’s still chock full of freaked-out synthesizer goodness, and somehow it’s still Infected Mushroom, but it is definitely a change.

Erez can play all that unbelievably fast arpeggiated stuff live, while running filter sweeps and all that other knob-twirly goodness. He was so focused on the music that he didn’t seem to have any bandwidth left for his face, so it was up to Duvdev to provide the stage charisma – but if you happened to see what he was doing with his hands, it was some truly amazing keyboard mastery. I can only imagine the hours of Hanon exercises that must have gone into making that performance possible.

I still don’t like Club Heavens. It was packed, stiflingly hot, and so humid that we all walked out with dishpan hands from nothing more than the moisture in the air. (I’m beginning to think Chris W. has a point about the proper venue for psytrance being a clearing in the woods.) But I can live with that; it’s the standing-in-lines, the security frisk, and the generally pretentious attitude that turns me off. The staff are personally friendly, but the club as a whole projects an irritating feeling of superiority.

The three of us in last night’s posse all wore laserfingers, and as before, they attracted intense curiosity. The club was full of glowsticks, fingerlights, strobe wands, and all the usual toys, but there’s something about laser light that grabs attention – especially when the stage show is kind enough to provide a smoke machine.

I have been using pairs of N batteries for the laserfingers, but I think the next generation will switch to AAAs or 9Vs. Bigger and heavier, yes, but at least when your batteries are dying at 11 PM you can dash out to the nearest random convenience store and pick up replacements.