Polo & Pan’s visit Toronto for the first time and their visit is a big hit

This was the band’s first time playing a gig in Toronto to a clearly anticipated event. The venue was sold out, packed with a relaxed, mixed crowd many of whom were wearing tropical motif shirts – fans indeed. The opening guest, Phillippe warmed up the already enthusiastic crowd for Polo & Pan with fun tracks and his impressive behind-the-deck dance moves (bottom image). It was a two-step evening, a stark difference from the Keys N Krates show in the same space a couple days back.  

The French duo consists of “Polocorp” (Paul Armand-Delille) and “Peter Pan” (Alexandre Grynszpan), two cheerful and pleasant spirits subtly dancing and sharing equipment. After a warm introduction, they immediately jumped into their full-length album Caravelle. The songs mixed live in front of the audience are very close to what you hear on the album but with much more energy. Tracks like “Dorothy” and “Kirghiz” embraced their electro foundation and created a slightly trancy vibe in the room.  

With a few EP’s and one full album behind their belt, Polo & Pan don’t have a particularly large repertoire but the set of tracks they do have filled the night with cheer and sing-along for nearly every song (particularly for “Aqualand”). The Francophone community in Toronto came together for this show almost as much as they did for Jain last month.  The duo started the night with introductions in English but by the end of the set, all stories and track commentary were shared in French. Not gonna lie my French is below zero so I lost some insight at this point. 

For “Naña” at the end of the night, the entire room went into synchronized arm swings as Polocorp and Peter Pan calmly executed one of the people’s favorite songs. After a very short break, the duo came back out on stage with a few more tracks and closed the night out with “Abysse” and “Canopée.” 

Polo & Pan’s first visit to Toronto was a solid, nearly two-hour long set, that solidified their status as a band to watch. Cant wait to see what they release next.