Thievery Corporation Stole the Show At Palace
I was really excited for this show - not just because the calibre of band that Thievery Corporation represent meant that I was in for a good time, and not just because I had never seen them before and I was itching to scratch them off my list. Most of all, I was excited to escape the oppressive Minnesota winter and get inside for a show that promised to be as warming, welcoming and soul-nurturing as the outside world was promising the opposite.
City of the Sun opened up the twofer showing of bands at Palace theatre. Proudly proclaiming that this was just one of many tours they had spent opening for Thievery Corporation, the trio arrested the crowd immediately with a sinewy, beautiful groove that felt a little bit out of a country western, a little bit Godspeed You! Black Empereror, a little bit je nais se quois. Their sound is all over the place on pretty much every song, and that means there really is something for everything. Translating live, it felt a little bit like I didn’t know where any particular song was going to go, and that was typically pretty exhilirating, because it felt like the band got lost in a groove and I wasn’t exactly sure where it was headed. For a genre that can feel very railroaded in terms of structure, your Mono’s and your GY!BE’s and your Hammock’s ebbing and flowing and ebbing and flowing - I will say that City of the Sun subvert this, both on record and live, by being a lot more playful with their building energy and letting it scatter about and take them interesting places rather than follow a pre-recorded destination. Listening to them live, it was sort of like being transported like a tourist from musicla destination to musical destination, and so in 40 minutes they packed a memorable, not-like-anything-else punch into what you’d expect from guitar+bass+drums.
Thievery Corporation’s eclectic reputation preceded them - I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect from a band that proudly and boldly proclaims that every Thievery Corporation show is just a little bit different. Since this was my first one, I don’t really have anything else to base it off of except different bands, but straight in they impressed. Leading off with Puma Ptah taking the stage and mesmerizing the crowd with a more reggaetron vibe, the who’s who of vocal dynamics is something that stood out immediately.
When you listen to them on record, and of course their production credits list oodles and oodles of vocalists and contributors, but it’s not until you see the package live that it hits you what a dynamic and fluid band they are. The first song whisked you off into one corner of the world, transporting you and planting you in a vibe and groove was nothing like the song that followed. There’s a lot of bands that can change things up and adopt different styles between songs, and there’s fewer bands that can pull that off and make it sound seamless and energetic and unforced. There’s even less bands who can take that sound, that shifting and shaping swap from place to place, and make it seem like their identity.
Their identity it is though, as Thievery Corporation rolled through track after track that ran the gamut from the aforementioned Reggatreon to a more mid-90s Prodigy style electro affair to of course vocal highlight Mr. Lif laying down effortless rap excellence as the band backed him with sharp beats and subtle melodies. I’ve truly never been at a show that took what I expected about it and flipped it immediately on its head, only to flip it immediately on its head again. They’re a band like no other and their live show is not to be missed!