Santigold
House of Blues
4/3/2016
Festival season is upon us and the beloved genre-blending singer, Santigold, is nowhere to be found on Coachella and FYF lineups. Luckily for us, Santigold’s “We Buy Gold” tour visited the House of Blues in Anaheim last night. Booties were popped, stages were invaded, people pretended to know her lyrics, it was an overall great time.
With the genre and following Santigold attracts, I found myself asking why this show wasn’t held at The Observatory then I realized Tyler The Creator had a gig the same name night and found myself answering my own question. The crowd at the House of Blues was an eclectic mix of hip youngsters and sophisticated late twenties crowd that would rather dine in the balcony than sweat it out in the pit.
Leikeli47 opened the show with a balaclava mask on and a dope girl presence that won over the crowd with her crass mash-up of soul, house and hip-hop.
As soon as Santigold hit the stage with the throwback jam, “You’ll Find A Way”, the crowd was quickly divided into die-hard fans who sang every lyric and folks who seemed lost and unaware of what the singer was saying. The set list consisted of a fair share of tracks from each one of Santigold’s albums, Santogold, Master of My Make-Believe and her latest release, 99¢.
An Avant-garde slideshow of supermarket scenery, a two-man band and two dancers with choreographed routines, matching outfits, neon-framed sunglasses and stone faces accompanied Santigold as she sang and danced while wearing bright and artfully crafted designs. A total of four outfit changes were made with each dress as wacky as the other.
The young and drunk women dancing by me said they all had to drive from Los Angeles to catch Santigold because her Hollywood Palladium date sold out. The singer even asked the crowd herself if anyone actually was from Anaheim or if people drove from Los Angeles. She then joked about being able to go to Disneyland earlier.
Bubbles surrounded the stage as “Disparate Youth” played on and brought more somber and relaxed vibes to Santigold’s energetic set. “Can’t Get Enough Of Myself” closed out her set and “Big Mouth” closed out the encore. Hips shook and voices were lost with most of the action happening in the front of the stage and little next to no excitement towards the back end of the pit and balcony area.
A heart-warming moment occurred later in the set when a young little girl was held up by her father to give Santigold a bouquet of flowers. The singer thanked her and persuaded security to allow her and about twenty fans to go up onstage with her to turn up to “Creator.” I was lucky enough to be one of these fans and I must say jumping and dancing alongside one of your favorite artists on stage is definitely one of my all-time concert-going highlights.
The show felt rushed as Santigold hit the stage around 9:30 p.m and left around 10:40 p.m. As a first timer to the House of Blues in Anaheim, I wondered if there was a Disney mandated curfew or something. Still, that hour and fiftteen minutes of Santigold had enough booty shaking and sweaty dancing to leave me feeling satisfied yet still wanting more.
