Santigold: Worth The Wait In Gold

Santigold w/ Kilo Kish & Do Normaal
The Neptune Theatre, Seattle, WA
05.14.16

Expectations were high for Santigold‘s belated Seattle show, after the original date for her appearance at Seattle Theatre Group’s fifteenth “Little Big Show,” was cancelled due to illness. But make no mistake, they were rightfully so. Santigold – neé Santi White – the idiosyncratic electro-pop artist from Philadelphia who has mastered the art of musical collage, is known for putting on a show. And this one didn’t disappoint.

The night’s show opened with Seattle – by way of Southern California – artist Do Normaal, who delivered a dense, deep, and inherently dark set of her distinctive lyrical intimacies. Basement beats and near-psychedelic vocals are a fresh perspective worth a listen, while her stage presence was nonchalant.

Then it was Kilo Kish, an interdisciplinary artist who passed out homemade pamphlets – accompaniments to her live set – before taking the stage. More vocally feminine and pop-oriented than the previous artist, Kish also provoked the experimental. Her set felt a bit like poignant live-journaling with a smirk.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity – and in actuality was close to an hour – Santigold took to the stage. Two dancers occupied inflatable chairs, replete with ottomans, to munch on snack-size bags of Cheetos, and an overhead projector flashed multi-hued 99¢ stickers against a white backdrop. The set opened with “You’ll Find a Way,” an anthemic, fist-pumper from her debut self-titled album.

Clad in a yellow mini-dress with matching lace-up flats and ankle socks, her ensemble was topped with a #BigBoss pinstriped jacket, shoulders exaggerated to her cheekbones. It’s clear that this was a final show, her tour having just finished its standard run, as the kinks were few, the sound, the lights, the routine on point. “L.E.S. Artistes” saw the dancers in synchronicity with selfie-sticks, and at “Lights Out” Santigold removed the jacket to reveal her dress, printed with the tagline “we buy gold.”

There wasn’t a single misplaced song in the set, as she moved through new and old tracks with ease, a “best of” run down of hits that kept the crowd moving for a solid 90+ minutes. From the fierce “Say Aha” to the sultry “Who Be Lovin’ Me,” Santigold’s ouvre mixes up the magic of 80’s pop with African beats, hip hop with electronica. For “Creator” she brought about 30 luck audience members on stage saying, “If you wanna come up here you gotta leave your cameras man. Or just don’t pull ’em out. This is party time.” And then they dance.

There was a grocery cart dance routine, 60’s girl-group dance moves, and “we buy gold” spinner signs. Santigold has mastered the satirical pop commentary. But she’s also proving that she knows how to make just flat out good music. For “Who I Thought You Were” she pulls out a bass guitar, saying, “This is my favorite part of the show. I’m an amazing bass player just so you know. But I just started playing on stage for this tour. So I’m a genius.” And then she towels off and after some comments about the weather and how much we should care about global warming, breaks out a cover of Jay-Z’s “Brooklyn Go Hard,” which leads straight into “Shove It,” the song it originally sampled from. As stated earlier, Santigold knows how to build a set list.

Santigold Set List
You’ll Find a Way
L.E.S. Artistes
Big Boss Big Time Business
Banshee
Lights Out
Say Aha
Unstoppable
Freak Like Me
Rendezvous Girl
Who Be Lovin’ Me
Chasing Shadows
Disparate Youth
Creator
GO!
All I Got
Who I Thought You Were
Brooklyn Go Hard (JAY Z cover)
Shove It
Can’t Get Enough of Myself
Encore
Hold the Line (Major Lazer cover)
Big Mouth