At noon on Wednesday, we got a text:
“Caravan Palace is playing at the House of Blues tonight!”
“…Who?”
“Caravan Palace! You’ve heard them.”
“…Really? Send me some songs!”
“Is this your first time using the Internet?”
*sigh*
After some quick YouTube searching, we realized that we were complete idiots for not knowing the name to some of the freshest music we’ve been listening to for the last several years. We snagged our tickets and swam down to the House of Blues.
Caravan Palace is not a new face to the scene in any means. Since 2006, this French septet managed to formulate an incredibly recognizable marriage of jazz and swing with electronic genres. In fact, they self-describe as both being influenced by Django Reinhardt and Daft Punk. It really, really works for them, and it’s only described best with a listen (check out Lone Digger for your first track!).
Caravan Palace has never been to Texas. The majority of their extensive touring (hundreds upon hundreds of shows in the last 8 years) has been throughout Europe, and their first U.S. show was just shy of 3 years ago.
When we arrived, the opener, Gio Chamba, was well into his set. This was a cool mix of latin beats, hip hop, and live drumming. Even though we were totally into the set, we took a moment to get a tasty adult beverage and a snack (we might have only grazed at home, and seeing people eating chicken fingers made us totally blow our training diet). We worked our way up to the front and waited as they set up the stage.
As we found our place in the crowd, we settled with some friends, and who would later be described as their biggest fan. He was dressed in a vest and button down with a woven fedora tipped slightly, and he knew every single word to every single song. Biggest Fan would squeal and shout the name of the song within the first two notes every time, and danced so hard that no toe was safe. However, it was truly infectious, as a tinge of anticipation arose every time he yelled OMG as a song was starting. As we surveyed the crowd, we noticed there were a lot more folks in sort of an old-timey cosplay, a mix of swing and steampunk, fedoras and newsboy hats, and more vests and suspenders than we’ve seen at any electronic show ever. This just added to the anticipation that something special was going to happen, but we were still in for a surprise.
Have you ever been to a show that was supposed to be live and then realized that there really wasn’t much live to it at all? You leave, having had fun, but feeling a bit hollow since you really only got someone playing drums and fistpumping along to a prerecorded set? This concert was the antithesis of that, and it was 90% LIVE. Six of the seven band members, minus the joyously exuberant and stunningly talented Zoé Colotis, had at least one instrument and controller by their side. Throughout the night, violins, clarinets, trombones, xylophones, saxophones, keyboards, and an upright electronic bass all made an appearance. Every instrument was expertly and effortlessly played. Zoé’s voice was by far a standout though, and she quickly established herself as the sweetheart of the stage. She danced and flirted, and cooed to the audience, as every man in the audience was under her control. Still, her voice was something special, tackling difficult vocal riffs like she was lifting a feather.
As much as we can enjoy a great festival set with mind blowing lighting, it was also refreshing to have a minimal lighting set up in comparison. The band’s lights were in NO WAY bare, from the robot face off their new album underneath the main controller set up of Antoine Toustou, to the synchronized lighting to some of their more dynamic songs. We simply didn’t miss the lasers.
They swung and danced, and hyped the crowd so much, you would think it was a crowd of teenagers getting cake thrown at them. There were swing dance breaks in songs, and “cardio breaks” where the crowd hopped at their beckon. They played a whole set of their hits, including “Aftermath,” “Lone Digger,” “Comics,” and “Tattoos” in their well over hour set.
As they wished us well, we were drenched in sweat, and hoarse from cheering from this incredible show. They promised they would be back, so we will hold them to that!
Journalist/blogger since 2009 and music lover since 1980. Bex now travels the world and writes and takes photos of dance events, creates art in various media, sings quietly to her cat in the shower, and occasionally builds something that tends to involve a blowtorch. She can usually be seen hiding behind some sort of camera rig.
