DJs bring dance, rock worlds together

Lightknife calls himself a child of rock 'n' roll, and yet he's a DJ.

Counterintuitive?

Not really.

Not any more.

Intermingling rock and dance music is far from an unprecedented concept, as plenty of rock bands have made themselves dance floor friendly (early Killers, The Rapture) while numerous electronic-minded acts have embraced rock bombast (Justice, LCD Soundsystem).

But Vegas' Black Boots, Lightknife (aka Pedi Amiri) and former Afghan Raiders singer Mikey Francis, are attempting to fashion a more organic hybrid of the two.

Amiri has described the Boots as having an electronic body and a rock 'n' roll soul, and that's a fitting characterization.

Take the band's first single, "Rebels in the Night." With Francis singing of living fast and dying young over a hydraulic beat and effervescent synth lines, the song mates a rock swagger with an insistent dance music propulsiveness.

"There's this void, I felt, in electronic music that was growing with the DJ culture," Francis says. "There's this lack of a live element, that rock 'n' roll icon thing. It was becoming lost. I think we were pretty concise in deciding that we wanted to do an EDM project that was both friendly for the DJ world and for the dance world, but also for rock fans."

For Amiri, a producer as well as a DJ, Black Boots is a chance to explore a different kind of songwriting.

"It allowed me to really tap into myself as a more full-bodied musician, making songs that can relate to people of all kinds, instead of people who are more in tune with underground dance music," he says. "Can you dance to them? Yeah. Can you relate to them? Yes. Can you listen to them in the bedroom? Sure."

The duo, who have been writing together since the summer of 2011, are making their live debut at Body English at the Hard Rock Hotel on Saturday, opening for French alt-electronica troupe M83, who are performing a DJ set. They inked a deal with heavyweight dance music label Ultra Music earlier in the year, and are working toward the release of their first full-length.

Judging by the relentlessly anthemic "Rebels in the Night," you might actually be able to hear these two on the radio in the near future, a day they didn't see coming.

"Mikey and I come from this place where we made music that I would say wouldn't necessarily hit a mainstream crowd before. But everyone from the indie kids to the mainstream audiences seem to be enjoying the stuff that we've been making," Amiri says, not wanting to put too fine a point on things. "We make songs; that's the bottom line."

Contact reporter Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476.