Santogold & A-Trak @ The Guvernment

September 25th, 2008

I checked out Santogold and A-Trak last night at The Guvernment – I was really excited to finally see Santogold since her self-titled album is one of my favourite releases of 2008 – just a solid album from start to finish. She was in Toronto earlier this summer opening for Coldplay, but who wants to pay $100 just to see the opener? (see also: Wilco opening for Neil Young this coming November)

Sadly, I completely missed openers Let’s Go To War and Low vs. Diamond, but arrived just in time to catch A-Trak. It was quite a lineup – I mean, I didn’t see how Low vs. Diamond fit in with A-Trak, or A-Trak with Santogold, even, but somehow it worked despite the different genres.

A-Trak played a really crowd pleasing mix of old and new countdown-esque hits to get people dancing and moving in time for Santogold’s set. Among the songs were:

Robyn S. – Show Me Love (this one keeps popping up at DJ nights – it’s really made a comeback!)
Dee-Lite – Groove Is In The Heart
Kanye West – Stronger
N*E*R*D – Everyone Nose
Debonair Samir – Samir’s Theme
Kanye West – Can’t Tell Me Nothin’, Good Life
M.I.A. – Paper Planes
Jay-Z – Big Pimpin’
Daft Punk – Around The World

In between sets the house DJ (or whoever presses play on the iPod that plays music between sets) was busy trying to win my heart – I heard The Smiths’ Half A Person and my favourite Pixies song of ALL TIME, Alec Eiffel. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve heard either song on loud speakers at a show. Very nice!

Santogold came out to a DJ (this initially caused a bit of confusion, as he played a few songs before she and her dancers appeared) and immediately busted out You’ll Find A Way She was accompanied by two twin (?) dancers, identically dressed in wide shorts, t-shirts and sunglasses. They performed various bits of choreography throughout the set and were kind of the highlight of the night, in addition to Santogold’s really sweet demeanour. Multiple times she reached out to the audience to help with lyrics and to gush about how much she loves performing in this city.

She performed a quality set of tracks from her self-titled debut, along with a cover of The Clash‘s Guns Of Brooklyn and some songs from her mixtape with Diplo.

Here’s the setlist – did anyone catch the names of the last few songs? Also, I’m saddened that (once again) we didn’t hear I’m A Lady. What’s up with that!

Setlist:
You’ll Find A Way
L.E.S. Artistes
Shove It
Say Aha
? (sampled Panda Bear’s “Comfy In Nautica” – anyone know the name?)
Anne
My Superman
Guns Of Brooklyn (The Clash cover)
Starstruck
?

Posted on Thursday, September 25th, 2008 at 3:44 pm by Kat and is filed under Concerts & Events.