A little pre-Thanksgiving break show is sometimes the perfect setup before the craziness of the holidays and finals starts up. Driving down to New Orleans Friday night was not the most opportune time for an adventure with looming deadlines in my near future, but the night turned itself around real quick. Nestled perfectly in the quarter, One Eyed Jack was hosting Caribou and Jessy Lanza. Both artist hail from Canada, though Dan Snaith of Caribou has spent the last 15 years living in London. The Foggy show floor of One Eyed Jacks filled up in anticipation for the promised lineup and posters on the entrance doors clearly marked that, yes indeed the show was sold out. A floor filled with enough sweaters to make even Bill Cosby jealous, the crowd was buzzing with pre-show excitement when Jessy Lanza took the stage.
In all truthfulness I mistook the lovely Miss Lanza for a sound girl at first. Rocking a stone grey colored zip up hoodie and side swept wavy hair she looked right as home on stage completely focused on her sound board. She blew the crowd away with her slow synth beats. It was a hypnotic mix coupled with her sweet light vocals and she easily got a few confessions of love and a marriage proposal from the adoring crowd. Lanza’s background in musicology from McGill University is obvious by the way she pays a kind of calculated but artistic attention to her task at hand. Mixing music she labels as hyperdub the crowd got to enjoy songs like Giddy, 5785021, and Keep Moving. Though she kept her crowd interaction low, it was fun to see her light up at the wild cheers from the crowd. She left us with her name and a short thank you before introducing Caribou to the stage.
Descending from the side stair, Caribou took the stage in an all-white getup. Projected on the stage was the album art from Caribou’s latest Album “Our Love” released in early October of this year. The band had the crowd in a trance. The heavy beats and even rhythms had the crowd moving in perfect synchronization with the drums. Paired with Dan Snaith’s smooth vocals the songs were a mesmerizing mix of synthetic and metallic sounds. Playing alongside live band members Ryan Smith, Brad Weber, and John Schmersal, the four produced favorite like Odessa as well as tracks from the new album Silver and Our Love. The crowd loved it and the energy was infectious as Snaith himself was grinning at the crowd from the cheers and shouts. The band played a long set and upon leaving were cheered on for two encore songs. The show was a monumental success and left the crowd happy and spent. We all exited through the doors of One Eyed Jack’s in a daze of amazement left to finish out the rest of our weekends as needed.