The most Scandinavian tour going today, featuring Robyn, Röyksopp and Robyn protegé Zhala, pulled into Toronto's TD Echo Beach last night. Here's what you missed
1. Three acts, four sets
The evening saw the three artists playing four sets, with Zhala, Robyn and Röyksopp each playing one set by themselves, followed by a combined Robyn/Röyksopp set to end the night. That's giving concertgoers value for their dollar.
2. Zhala picking up where the Knife left off
During her set later in the evening, Robyn described Zhala — the first non-Robyn artist on her Konichiwa Records label — as being "like f--king Whitney Houston." Let's make one thing clear: Zhala is nothing like Whitney Houston. Indeed, she couldn't be less like Whitney Houston if she tried. If anything, Zhala is a descendent of recently retired fellow Swedes the Knife. Her production moves from ambient to hard techno to synth-pop with some dirt mixed in, and is occasionally pretty aggressive. She uses two mics, one for clean vocals, the other for the same sort of disassembled, distorted sound as the Knife's Karin Dreijer Andersson. She also sets up her production equipment on a podium that features a pair of pink plush lips and occasionally shoots out smoke. Good news, Knife. You can retire knowing that your legacy of being super weird is in good hands.
3. So much Röyksopp
Playing with a full band — bassist, guitarist, two drummers, two modular synths — the Norwegian synth-pop duo took on a whole new sonic dimension. Everything was bigger, fuller, richer, and their moody, downtempo sound occasionally verged into stadium house territory.
4. So many lasers
Look, we understand that in 2014 we shouldn't be impressed with lasers at a show, but Röyksopp's laser game is on point. There were so many of them. They created a shimmering ceiling at the outdoor venue. They formed a massive spiderweb of light. They flew around like drive-by shooting on Tatooine. You can be too cool to be impressed with lasers, but we loved them.
5. Röyksopp being very polite
They referred to us as "a very nice audience." We thought that was charming.
6. The sheer kinetic power of Robyn
A lot has been written about Robyn's dancing, so it feels weird for us to mention it again, but when you see her gyrate, spin, jog and Ministry of Silly-walk her way across the stage for a nearly uninterrupted hour, you realize that she is a very special performer. This isn't choreographed; this is just an expression of how much she loves performing.
7. The overwhelming dedication of Robyn fans
There are no lukewarm Robyn fans. You don’t sort of like Robyn. You either love her with the entirety of your being, or you don’t get the big deal. That’s why everyone knew every word to every song last night. That’s why she was able to have the crowd sing the first chorus to “Call Your Girlfriend” en masse, a cappella. She told the crowd that she had “some new songs to work out” and to “bear with her.” She could have said “bear with me while I eat this sandwich” and they would have applauded.
8. Robyn and Röyksopp being heavier than the sum of their parts
There were moments during their combined set that got almost industrial, particularly the set-opening “Sayit,” which is all dissonant synths, squelching, broken-sounding electronics and stomping drum machines. If you were to take Robyn’s vocals out of that track, it could be a Frontline Assembly song.
9. The most punctual show we've ever been to
Everything ran exactly on time, except for Robyn, who came onstage 10 minutes early. We were hoping to pee and maybe grab a beer before her set. No such luck. Still, the whole thing was a monument to timeliness. Other acts should have been taking notes.
by Chris Dart via Electronic RSS
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