Polo & Pan Bring Palatial Dance Party
It’s been a hell of a summer for electronic music, especially from the famously excellent French EDM scene. Justice earlier this summer at Armory was one of the most impressive, exhilarating concerts I have ever been to, and then just a few short months later their brethren Polo & Pan swung through the Palace this past Wednesday and put on a pound-for-pound equally impressive show.
Opening up in the ancient haunt in downtown St. Paul was visual artist and chill extraordinaire Tycho : ISO50. The last time I saw Tycho was in exactly the same venue in 2022 with a full backing band - he was opening up for Interpol, and I recall he played a lot off of what was then his most recent album (Simulcast), while bringing about some choice picks from Dive and Awake. This performance was a bit more of a stripped-down, intimate affair - it was just Scott, a projector, and a small deck setup. Without a backing band, there I found it actually a lot easier to get behind the live appeal of Tycho’s tracks, and the remixed and dancier-forward approach he took to presenting them on his own - combined with his own visual art on display behind him - I think made for an even better performance. Hearing the eponymous “Awake” as its own track with a slow build and a classic EDM drop gave it a new spin that breathed life into a track I was at least a decade familiar with at this point.
Tycho’s lighting director - name unknown - was also worth a shout, as it can be a hard sell to be the only person on stage at Palace (from a lot of past experience) and keep things feeling dynamic, but the teamwork between the music on display and the front of house person working the Palace’s lights really elevated what was a strong set into one of the more powerful opening performances I have seen in the Twin Cities in some time.
I had caught snippets of the tour setup for Polo & Pan from reels and a few posts, but it still didn’t appropriately prepare me for just how vibrant and dynamic they ended up being. Consummate professionals, each and every song had some different little element to stage presentations going on - whether that be both of them behind their deck, new (as of 2025) live singer Zoe Madimmi taking the center stage as Polo & Pan DJ behind her, or even the rare song where Paul Armand-Delille (Polocorp) took front and center as Pan took over behind him. Every song had a slightly different presentation and it really drew me in and kept me guessing at how they might change it up for the next song.
To re-use the word - dynamic was the name of the game for the duo. Their was a clear and noticeable focus on keeping the show as varied and visually stimulating as possible, as if someone found it unacceptable that any one song be recognized for a song before it. Accompanying this focus on shifting things up as much as possible was the unique stage setup - a massive deck that had consoles at the center behind but also individual consoles bookending it. In addition to this, a suspended lighting platform could descend to give them a more traditional “DJ at a festival” look, armed with its own massive LED panel that could be manipulated to point at the audience. Of course, this doesn’t even mention the semi-truck’s worth of panels and strobes arrayed around them. It was easily the most impressive lighting setup I have seen crammed into Palace since Chromeo played last year, and I think it really gives that one a run for its money in complexity.
The duo played a tremendous amount of songs, with quite a few off their new album 22:22, but an absolute bevy of old material in there as well. Being their first time in the twin cities, they remarked quite a few times how in love with the turnout and crowd energy they received for a city they had never visited before - and I am hoping that their next visit is a lot sooner than ten years from now, as this was a kaleidoscopic treat for the eyes that I won’t soon forget.
