Cautious Clay has been on the music scene for almost a decade after his debut single, 2017’s “Cold War,” came out, which ended up on his first full-length album, 2018’s Blood Type. A singer, producer and multi-instrumentalist—a virtuoso of guitar, bass, saxophone and flute—he’s also an accomplished songwriter and has made a name for himself penning music for Billie Eilish, John Mayer and Khalid, while earning co-signs from Taylor Swift, Issa Rae, and Jack Antonoff.

The Hours: Morning was released in May of this year to widespread acclaim. A genre-blending body of work, the eight-track album bounces from indie pop and soulful jazz, soft and smooth R&B, to hard rock and even punk. A personal record shaped by major life transitions, the album explores themes of presence, identity and slowing down against the pace of society through brilliant melodies and introspective storytelling. 

During his recent Toronto appearance, Clay told the crowd more about the concept for the album, and explained that being an artist is unique because it’s a job that doesn’t have a lot of structure; because of that, every hour of every day has a certain feeling for him, and each song on this album evokes a distinct mood, color and time of day.

An energetic force of neo-soul, Clay was joined on stage by three other musicians—lead guitar, bass and drums—and played to a packed house of eager fans, performing tracks like the slick and soulful “Tokyo Life (5am)”, toe-tapping indie pop tunes “Father Time (10 am)” and “Traffic (7 am),” and the seductive R&B ballad “Promises (9 am),” all off of The Hours: Morning. He included a few fan favourites from older releases too, like the hypnotic “Joshua Tree” and the lo-fi textured “Cold War” from Blood Type, and the upbeat “Dying in the Subtlety” and dreamy “Wildfire” from 2021’s Deadpan Love. He also treated the audience to a heartfelt cover of jazz singer Anita Baker’s 1986 song “Sweet Love,” a beautiful old school number that made you lull and sway in sync with the music. 

A masterful musician, Clay dazzled the crowd as he moved seamlessly from playing guitar, blasting out jazzy saxophone riffs, to soloing on the flute. The audience was in his grip as he travelled through his set, heightening and releasing tension throughout as the crowd danced to thick basslines, infectious rhythms and rapturing melodies. His vocals shone through the night too, soaring through his powerful falsetto and wrapping his lyrics with his rich and soulful tone. 

The concert kicked off with an opening performance by American artist Elujay, whose soul, R&B and funk sound primed the crowd for a feel-good evening of music. A mix of warm and hazy tones underscored with upbeat disco soul tracks and scaling vocals, the set had a strong retro vibe reminiscent of Stevie Wonder or Marvin Gaye.

Cautious Clay’s The Hours: Night, the follow-up album to The Hours: Morning, drops on October 24. Its feature single, “Fade Blue (11 pm)”, was released in August of this year and is available to listen to across all streaming platforms.    

Cover image: Cautious Clay at the Corona Theatre in Montreal by Monika Cefis

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From the beginning of the night the strong sense of community and appreciation was immediately palpable, and you recognize that you’re in a welcoming and accepting space.

The venue—which has been Wavelength’s home base for many years now—featured two rooms, a large main room on the first floor with a prominent stage typical of a traditional concert hall, and a basement that felt like more of an underground club scene. Attendees shuffled back and forth between floors between each act, which kept the momentum up as there was always someone on stage to watch.

The evening started with the ethereal vocals of Montreal-based Swedish composer, Erika Angell. A prolific producer and writer, Angell has released 16 albums and been featured on countless tracks by other artists. Her unique, trance-like vocals and beats set the stage for a fun evening of music.

After her set, the crowd headed downstairs to experience Toronto artist Jane Inc.’s signature funk, pop synth sound. She revved up the vibe with a set that took the audience through highs and lows, with a mix of mellow and upbeat danceable tunes. This was the first time I had heard of Jane Inc. but immediately looked her up on Spotify after the show and I suggest you do as well!

Third in the night’s lineup was the Montreal-based shoegaze band, Bodywash. A five-piece group with synths, guitars, keys and drums, they treated everyone to a bunch of fun synth-pop tunes before announcing that they were working on a rock album and played a few of their new harder-hitting songs, to the thrill of the crowd.

Then it was back downstairs to hear the ambient vocals and swift beats of UK-based, British Hong Kong artist, Mui Zyu, whose atmospheric and pulsating set was mesmerizing. Her voice, soft and pretty, fit perfectly with the galactic sounds of her guitar and synth. One of my favourite experiences of her set was when she sang a song in Cantonese, paying homage to her heritage and proving that great music spans across cultures and dialects.

Capping off the evening was Canadian multi-instrumentalist and composer, Owen Pallett. A musical genius in his own right, Pallett played a 90-minute set of his signature style, using a looping machine to layer the rhythmic plucks and singing strings of his violin overtop of a catchy guitar melody and soft vocals. You could tell he was the main reason everyone was there, and it was exciting to watch him use his musical ingenuity to create right in front of us.

Pairing art and music, each downstairs performance was accompanied by kaleidoscopic visuals and light projections by artist Anthony Piazza and General Chaos Visuals upstairs. A supernova of colour and shapes, they punctuated the music perfectly and provided a visual stimulus that complemented each act.

I’m disappointed to admit that this was my first time attending a Wavelength event, but it won’t be my last. With festivals and concerts happening year-round, it’s great that there’s an organization dedicated to showcasing the work of today’s more obscure artists, proving that there is a thriving underground music scene that is worthy of recognition and celebration.

Cover image by Green Yang

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Last week I got the chance to see California R&B hip-hop artist Kyle – or super-duper Kyle as he is also known – on tour with his latest album It’s Not So Bad, which dropped earlier this year.  

The last time Kyle played Toronto was in 2018 at the Phoenix Concert Hall, this time the show was at Lee’s Palace, an equally intimate venue, and he seemed pretty excited to be back in this musical city of ours! 

Commanding the stage with charisma and boisterous youthful energy, the crowd of 20-somethings bopped along to his upbeat and danceable style of hip-hop, which fuses elements of dance, R&B, and even some rock into its party anthems. 

Admittedly, I had not heard of Kyle before attending this show, but when I was offered a ticket last minute I quickly Spotified him and recognized a few of the songs so I was keen to check it out. When I got to the venue I was blown away by the room’s energy and specifically by an artist who you could tell really relished the spotlight. With an unbridled amount of energy, Kyle bounced around the stage like a cool fitness instructor, doing more high knees than Jane Fonda in the ‘80s, with his big toothy grin beaming as he reassured everyone that he was there solely for the purpose of entertaining them, and that he did! 

Kyle performed all of the tunes from It’s Not So Bad and threw in a couple of bangers from his previous albums, like “Don’t want to Fall in Love”, a true booty-bouncing track that I now have in heavy rotation on my workout playlist. I was also extremely pleased to discover that Kyle can sing and rap exceptionally well. In my experience, artists are often good at one or the other, but Kyle truly excels at both, crooning out his smooth hooks and melodies and rapping with a natural cadence and flow. It was a joy to see a performer on stage owning every part of their song and working the stage completely solo. That being said, he was joined by an MC and friend Lil Yachty for a couple of tracks towards the end (“iSpy” “Hey Julie!“), and that was a treat for folks. Lil Yachty added a little extra to the show and hyped up Kyle – the camaraderie between the two was obvious. 

One of the best party tricks I’ve ever seen at a show was when Kyle crowd-surfed, but I mean — with an actual surfboard! His crew took out a surfboard and gave it to the crowd who were instructed to hold it up, and then, from the stage, Kyle jumped on it and sang a verse of one of his songs literally surfing the crowd. A little gimmicky, but fun and memorable nonetheless and perhaps a fun nod to his California roots.  

To my surprise and confusion, however, once Kyle finished his last track and bid everyone good night the lights went on and people headed for the exit. “Huh???” I thought to myself, where’s the stomping and shouting of “one more song, one more song!” that I’ve been conditioned to expect from a live concert. It was a strange experience and one that cast a bit of a shadow over the rest of the concert given that it was the last thing that happened. So, basically in a nutshell: the concert was awesome, invigorating, and just pure fun, you just had to leave a couple of minutes early to keep those good times rolling. 

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It had been over two years. Over two years since I’d felt the powerful, kinetic energy of live music surge through my veins. For more than 24 cold, lonely and boring months, my music spirit laid dormant inside of me, suppressed by the global pandemic. I missed moving my body to the beat of some powerful drummer, or to a guitarist ripping on a solo. To be honest, I wasn’t sure I’d ever return to my pre-covid concert-loving self. It had been so long—would I ever experience live music the same way again? What I did know, though, was that if there was any chance of awakening my music mojo, that rush that fills me from the inside out when at a concert, no ordinary four-piece band would do. I needed a big sound, a fresh and funky sound that would drive into my heart and jumpstart my music soul back to life. So, when I heard that southern soul band St. Paul and the Broken Bones was making a stop in Toronto in March, I thought to myself: “Maybe there’s hope after all?”

I saw St. Paul & the Broken Bones back in 2018 at the Danforth Music Hall and they were incredible. I’m already a massive lover of soul and blues, and they really elevate their sound with frontman Paul Janeway’s superhuman vocal ability, blasting horn section, and overall funkified soul tunes that really get the crowd moving. So, tentatively, I secured myself a spot to the Toronto stop on the tour for their latest album Alien Coast, which came out in January this year. 

The show was at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre on the Exhibition Place grounds. I’ve never been to this venue before so was unsure what to expect. When I arrived, they checked vax passports (to my relief), everyone was wearing masks when walking around and, to my surprise, the space was full of chairs set up theatre style. “Huh, I guess we all have to stay seated?” was my initial thought. But boy was I wrong!

The band started off the show with the more subdued and atmospheric track from their latest release “Popcorn Ceiling”, which left me, and the audience, awe-struck by Janeway’s effortlessly controlled, piercing vocals. I sat in my seat staring at him in wonder, transfixed by his gorgeous voice and ethereal accompaniment. It felt like they were easing everyone in, welcoming them back, slow and steady to live music again. But then they cranked out their second song, the fun and upbeat “The Last Dance” from Alien Coast, and the crowd began to rise to their feet, slowly at first, until an eager patron in the third row turned around and shouted at everyone frantically to:  “Get up! Get Up!!!”. I laughed (so did Janeway) and then immediately obeyed. As soon as I stood the music overtook me and I started to move. First my feet, then my hips, and by the song’s end my whole body was involved, flailing to the propulsive beat, blaring horns, and shimmering keys. It was one of the best feelings I’ve had in a long time. I was so overwhelmed that, and please don’t tease me, I started to tear up. I was so happy, so invigorated, so relieved that this nightmare we’ve been living for the past two years was finally coming to an end, and I could once again enjoy one of my all-time pleasures in life—live music! St. Paul and the Broken Bones had done it, they awoke my music mojo! 

From then on, the band had the crowd eating out of their hand. They could do no wrong. The six-piece produced a big sound, were super tight and dazzled with a full horns section comprised of an alto and tenor sax, trombone and trumpet, as well as a drum machine, organ, bass, and drums. With a setlist made up of tunes new and old, the aisles swelled with dancing bodies, arms waved energetically in the air, and people gyrated in time to the band’s sweet soulful sound. 

They also performed “Minotaur” from the latest album, a tune that has one of the funkiest bass walkdowns I think I’ve ever heard, something that stands out far more live than on the recording. From their 2016 album Sea of Noise, they did “Flow with It” and “I’ll Be Your Woman”. From 2018’s Young Sick Camellia they performed the upbeat, danceable “Apollo” and “Convex”, which they held for the encore. 

One of the most exciting elements of the show was the instrumental interlude. After about five songs in, with the crowd nice and warm, Janeway left the stage and the musicians took control. I love when bands do this – the lead singer steps away from the spotlight, giving the band time to shine. The musicians treated everyone to a slick instrumental breakdown, with many of them showing off their skills with rotating solos: first was the trombone (which I have never heard played like that before!), second was the trumpet, then the organ, and finishing with the drums. It was incredible to watch this crew of mega-talented musicians in their element, and the crowd ate up every second of it! I, for one, couldn’t stop dancing, a massive smile plastered on my face. 

The band ended their 75-minute set with a three-tune encore: “Grass is Greener” and “Call Me”, both from 2014’s Half the City, and the aforementioned “Convex”. And, probably because of my lack of experience over the past two years, I broke my own music mantra, which is to always go to the opener. Sadly, I only caught the tail end of Thee Sacred Souls. They were great, too, and their sound reminded me of a modern Sam Cooke or Smoky Robinson, with stunning falsetto vocals and a vintage soul vibe. Definitely check them out if you haven’t already. 

By the time I left, I was buzzing from adrenaline and excitement. St. Paul and the Broken Bones came through once again, and I credit them for getting me out of my live music slump. I truly don’t think any other band would have been up to the sizeable challenge. They resurrected my music soul, unleashed a part of me that I had been forced to stifle for so long, and took us all to church—hallelujah, testify! 

Cover photo by Bobbi Rich for the artist

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South Korean-born and now LA-based producer, rapper, singer, and DJ, 박혜진 Park Hye Jin released her debut album, Before I Die, earlier this month. Completely written and produced by Park Hye Jin, the album was the highly anticipated follow-up to her two previously released EP’s, If You Want It (2018) and How Can I (2020). Both EP’s were given praise by critics for her inventive use of tonal melodies, driving bass, and dreamlike soundscapes. She also gained recognition for a string of collaborations, working with Clams Casino & Take A Daytrip (“Y DON’T U”), Blood Orange (“CALL ME (Freestyle)”) and Nosaj Thing (“CLOUDS”), plus a remix from Galcher Lustwerk (“Can you”).

Before I Die builds on these first two releases to deliver chill house tracks with thrumming basslines, as well as funkier hip-hop tracks laced with Hye Jin’s rhymes and melodies as she raps and sings in both English and Korean. Featuring 15 tracks, the disc starts off with “Let’s Dance”, a smooth house track with a pretty piano progression with Hye Jin’s trance-like vocals chanting “let’s sing, let’s dance”. Next is “I Need You”, which begins as a delicate piano ballad and shifts to a quicker pace as the trap beat kicks in, underscoring the chords and suiting the cadence of her rhymes perfectly; it’s a slow groove that still keeps the energy pumping. Other house tracks on the album are “Sex with Me”, which offers a lighter danceable electronic beat with her moody vocals driving the melody, and “Never Die”, a peppier, more playful house track, with a happy hardcore vibe that will make you want to dance until the wee hours. 

Not one to be pegged as a techno DJ only, the album includes several songs that feature a strong hip-hop beat, and even lend themselves to R&B and jazz. The title track “Before I Die”, is a slower rhythm with a steady groove and a delicate reggae rap vocal that casts some light on the heavy bass. “Me Trust Me” will get you bouncing with its old-school hip-hop vibe and delivery of soulful riffs and swaggering bass line. I hear jazz influences in the cool “Where did I Go”, a fusion of intricate and off-beat jazz riffs stacked with ethereal, zen-like lyrics; and “Watcha Doin Later” starts off sounding like an R&B slow jam with a soulful piano line until the trap track kicks in, kicking up the pace and giving a steady heartbeat to the song. 

박혜진 Park Hye Jin’s first full-length album plays with multiple genres through an electro lens. She combines and layers vocals, beats, musical styles, and languages to create a body of work that holds the listener’s attention, curious about what will come next. An inventive artist who reveals her unique musical persona with every bar, she’s showing us through this album the exact kind of boundless artist she is, and the pulsating music she’s drawn to create. Before I Die is now available to stream on Spotify and is available on Ninja Tune. 

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Ideal Rules, the debut compilation album from Mineral Records, a new iteration of the Paris cult label Roche Musique, features a stacked lineup of slick house beats infused with jazzy riffs and bass licks from a host of talented international producers and electro musicians. 

A nod to the history of electronica but unbridled by the rules of traditional house music, the album presents a fresh new house sound with 10 innovative tracks. France’s Aerial Boi’s “La Graviere” kicks off the album with trance beats laced with ethereal tones and melodic progressions that will make you feel like you’re dancing in heaven. Electronic duo Cerfeuil’s picks up the pace with “Luster”, which has a much quicker BPM, stronger breakbeat, and scratching elements under an electronic danceable groove.

Things get grimy with Reykjavík-based hip-hop and electronic producer DJ intr0beatz and “Today’s Courage”. With a steady snare beat that sprouts into a fully blossomed groove with deep bass, decorative house melodies, a shimmering tambourine, and warm spoken dialogue, this track will burrow deep into your veins and move your body from the inside out. The release gets more eclectic with Swiss producer Iya Ko’s “Yallah”, where we hear the distinct influence of African rhythms and styles, with colourful African drums. Later on, we enter the world of funk with Jehan’s “La Fonk”, complete with funky basslines and a rap sample mixed with house beats and keyboard riffs that give it a smooth jazzy feel.

German DJ and multi-instrumentalist Damian Rausch’s “Train” gives us a free-feeling techno vibe with layers of playful piano and keyboards that is sweet ear candy. The only American on the disc is Washington DC native Corbin Canvas, a multi-instrumentalist and genre-pushing producer, singer, rapper, and pioneer of the underground avant-garde art scene. He produces “Til Forever”, an impressive soundscape and the only track that includes both a vocal melody that is both sung and rapped. Japanese producer Monolithic, known for their lunar lo-fi house beats, delivers with the spinning “It’s Oka…el That Way”, an uptempo progressive house track. Parisian DJ and producer Paul Cut adds “Vertigo”, a chill house number with a funkified bass, and we revel in the techno glow of Slow Valley, a trap and future garage producer, whose track “Pitch Black” culminates the album with an infectious and danceable beat.

As referenced by the album’s title, Ideal Rules features artists who are taking their own liberties with house music, harnessing traditional elements of electronic music and spinning it to create a disc that comes out as refreshing and new.  For house-heads who like their music versatile, progressive, and danceable, this album has got you covered.

Ideal Rules came out on May 26. Check it out on Spotify and Sound Cloud.

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Colorado-based electro/hip-hop fusion duo Big Gigantic – made up of saxophonist/producer Dominic Lalli and drummer Jeremy Salk – dropped their seventh studio album, Free Your Mind, this February. A collection of heart-thumping EDM, hip-hop and reggae beats, the 13-track album is laced with the duo’s signature funky basslines, sexy saxophone riffs, and sweet, soulful vocals. With a balanced mix of uptempo club bangers, hard-hitting beats and smooth jazz grooves, Free Your Mind is an electronic hybrid of musical genres that imaginatively blends styles to create a truly inventive sound.

Kicking off the record is the atmospheric and instrumental “Daybreak,” signifying the electronica dawning of their new album that bleeds into the funky jazz beats of “Let the Speakers Blow,” a hip-hop track bursting with energy and infused with the Lalli’s infamous sax riffs.

More hip-hop/funk tracks on the album include “Higher” featuring The Funk Haters. Starting with a solid funk guitar riff the track switches gears and turns into a bouncy raver tune, with heavy computerized beats that build the tension until it explodes into a cool disco groove with a blaring horns section. “Supergigantic,” a gritty rap track featuring Nigerian-Canadian rapper and singer TOBi, brings the swagger to the party. A more traditional hip-hop track with sleek rhymes, the pulsating beat is elevated by a smooth sax break that is pure ecstasy. Closing out the funk tracks is “Baad,” featuring Pell and Louis Futon. Starting off slow, the song kicks up the drums to an uptempo breakbeat and sprinkles it with more jazzy sax licks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phcvubBTQfA&list=PLVBt2St_ZHB4xZGJt5hwAzzWKlSEa3Z_z

“Burning Love” is a fun pop song with pretty R&B vocals that dance over an electrified calypso beat, and “Friends,” with sultry vocals by Ashe, is a hypnotic R&B love story with a vintage feel.  The laid back pop song “You’re the One”, featuring EDM vocalist Nevve, about a girl longing for someone to notice her, makes you feel like relaxing in front of a campfire on a beach, and “Where I Wanna Be” will lift you up with its booming vocals, infectious sax riffs and heavily produced beats – a true dance number that will pack any dance floor!

“St. Lucia” is a suave reggae song with slick lyrics by American rapper, singer, songwriter, and producer Felly, and the title track “Free Your Mind” is a beautiful soulful tune with powerful vocals by Jennifer Hartswick that transforms into a hardcore EDM track.

A fun dance album that incorporates multiple styles, voices and rhythms to create something truly unique, Big Gigantic’s Free Your Mind will change the way you hear musical genres as they break all the rules to create another hit record that will keep you dancing from start to finish.

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Toronto audiences got a treat on Halloween night this year when acclaimed noise rapper and producer JPEGMAFIA played the Opera House. Praised for his thrilling beats, gritty collage work, and experimental use of samples, the inventive musician (whose real name is Barrington Hendricks) injected an adrenaline shot into the crowd with his amplified electronic rap music.

On tour with his third album, All My Heroes are Cornballs, a political and abstract hip hop album, the shock rapper delivered an electrifying show to a throng of fist-pumping fans. Flailing across the stage in a fit of musical possession, he aggressively rapped along to his powerful and provocative rhymes. Entranced in his self-produced beats, he performed several tracks from his new album, like “PTSD,” “Jesus Forgive Me I Am a Thot,” along with a bunch from his debut Black Ben Carson and his sophomore effort Veteran, like “Baby I’m Bleeding,” “I Smell Crack,” “DD Form,” and “DJ Snitch Bitch Interlude.”

Losing himself in his performance, Barrington fed off the crowd’s energy, taking his set into the mosh pit to party with his fans, and crowd-surfing multiple times, giving the concert-goers a thrill as he passed overhead while passionately and vehemently rapping along to his heated lyrics. Known for his controversial rhymes that confront racism, homophobia, and misogyny, his latest record presents themes that deal with how it feels to live in an era powered by mindless scrolling and compulsive tweeting, positioning himself as both a participant and vocal critic of trends of the new millennium.

This concert was originally scheduled for Adelaide Hall, which is where he played last year at this time, but they had to move it to a bigger venue. Clearly his notoriety has spread, with more and more people catching on to his raw, edgy, and electro style of hip hop and rap music. He also seems to have a lot of genuine love and appreciation for his fans, promising, as they all screamed for an encore, that he would take photos with them and hang with them after the show—and he did!

A musical and lyrical genius who’s taking rap music to a new level of creativity, JPEGMAFIA is currently touring the US. If you haven’t heard of him and want to discover an experimental fusion of rap, rock, house, and trance music that will fire you up and speak truth to power, check out.

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A truly authentic artist who sings from the gut, Reyez stunned the crowd to silence many times with her hauntingly beautiful vocals and emotionally-wrought performance. A fusion of hip hop, reggae, R&B, soul, and Latin flavors, the night went from reverberating and syncopated basslines to touchingly personal, stage-side moments.

She kicked off the night with the aggressive, carnivalesque “Shutter Island” and sang the lyrics ‘my straightjacket’s custom made, though!’ with a thunderous intensity that carried into the rest of the night. Dressed mainly in an oversized t-shirt, shorts and sneakers with her signature half-up hairdo, she stomped across the stage with a playful authority that told the audience that, while her music can be deeply personal and hold a weighted message, she’s here to have a ton of fun!

She continued to rev up the crowd with explosive renditions of more tunes from her two EPs Being Human in Public and Kiddo, like “Gatekeeper,” “Fuck It,” and “Dear Yessie.”

But amidst all of this in-your-face intensity, Jessie didn’t shy away from sentimental, personal moments. Revealing a more vulnerable side, she gazed upon an ex-lover embracing another woman while singing the mournful “Cotton Candy,” and sits at the lip of the stage to sing a tender acoustic version of “Sola,” the only song of hers written in Spanish. I was even brought to the brink of tears when, as part of one of the dramatizations, a young mother screamed as three members of ICE ripped her child from her arms, leading into the heartbreaking R&B track with a political message, “Far Away.”

Jessie Reyez is an honest musician who knows how to create emotional levels through her live performance and delivered a truly special show This concert took me from extreme, adrenaline-pumping highs to touching, contemplative lows. Her full-length debut album is dropping in 2020, and I predict incredible things! A gifted songwriter and intuitive musician with a piercingly expressive voice that will wrench your soul, she is destined for greatness. I can’t wait to tell people, in five years when she blows up (if it takes that long), that I saw her in this cozy 1500-seat theatre, “way back when.”

Images by Drew Yorke for Red Bull Music Festival

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As the lights dim the crowd begins to shriek, and out of the smoke-filled haze we hear the crystal-clear voice of alternative pop songstress, Banks. The singer, whose angelically sharp vocals cut perfectly through the aggressive basslines that populate her music, was at Rebel Nightclub in Toronto last week touring with her third album III, released in July. An ethereal presence draped in black and flanked by two back-up dancers, she kicked off her set with the new tension-building track “Till Now”, setting the tone for the rest of the evening. With electrifying energy that intensified as the night went on, Banks commanded the stage as she seduced the crowd with her 17-song set. 

A mash-up of old and new, she performed upbeat, more danceable songs from her latest album, like “Underdog,” “Stroke,” “Alaska,” and “Propaganda,” and several tunes from her sophomore record, like “Poltergeist,” “Gemini Feed,” and “Fuck with Myself.” I was particularly excited when she played “Drowning” and the hypnotizing “Waiting Game,” the only tracks from her first album, Goddess. With III, Banks preserves her uniquely sensual sound while kicking up the tempo, practically summoning you to the dancefloor. The twenty-something crowd ate it up, with crop top-wearing women and skinny-jeaned men gyrating from all angles.

What was even more impressive about this concert was the sheer production value of it all. I didn’t know what to expect, and I know she’s gotten bigger over the years, but I was not expecting the full visual spectacle that came with the set! Rhythmically fluid and carnal choreography was featured throughout, with Banks and her two dancers punctuating every beat with intricate and stylized movement. High praise should be given to the show’s lighting designer, whose bursting use of colors and laser effects set my optic nerves on fire! The sound was also on point, with perfectly balanced levels that adjusted to the ambient tone of each song, never drowning out the petite yet powerful vocalist.

Once the set came to an end, Banks left the stage and did not grace the audience with an encore. Maybe we’re all a little too conditioned to expect one as a typical part of the concert-going experience and to be denied that feels like a bit of a ripoff. After screaming for several minutes for her to come back, the high I was soaring on quickly sank when the house lights came on and a random audio track started to play.

Aside from the anticlimactic ending, it was an exhilarating night of live music! As Banks’ notoriety climbs and her star shines brighter, this concert is a testament to the incredible musician that she is, and is an indicator of the bold, versatile and dynamic artist she’s shaping herself to be.

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