With thousands upon thousands minutes away at the Mercedes Benz stadium for Kenny Chesney and the Zac Brown band and many thousands more at State Farm Arena for Mexican/Latin superstar Luis Miguel, a mere couple thousand settled in at Atlanta’s Tabernacle for danceable blend of electronica, dub, eastern, hip-hop, psychedelia, reggae and (insert genre here) that combines for a Thievery Corporation performance. Think electronics and percussion, and whatever else comes, comes. They keep an audience shaking their hips whatever the songs they choose, which changes nightly.
Founders Eric Hilton (not touring) and Rob Garza’s disposition to avoid limiting themselves to one style of music and instead embracing world music equates to a engaging experience for the audience. Live, the audience rides along on a world tour.
Start the concert with an instrumental journey featuring the not often heard sounds of sitar, emphatically paired with a danceable beat, and you’re on to something different from the very beginning. The sitar contributes to the rhythmic pulse of the song and in its way introduces the audience to general vibe musically of what will follow. It’s got a real groove.
“Lebanese Blond” follows with more sitar and introducing a two person brass section with sax and trumpet taking the music to a different place. And, singer Laura Vall takes the front of the stage for vocals, directing her attention left, right and into the balconies.
The band is technically Hilton and Garza, but the recording and touring band lineup has changed over time. Fans may not be familiar with all the singers, but they step in with not just the ability but the confidence to keep the crowd alive. Also, for an unknown duration, percussionist/drummer John Speice replaced Frank Orrall.
Next, Raquel Jones steps in to sing “Originality” and Rob Meyers remains situated with the sitar, but now the band takes you to reggae. Reggae with sitar? Yep.
What else you got? “Amerimacka.” Notch isn’t here to sing that one, but Puma Ptah has both the style and substance to convey the same smooth melodicism of the track. Dreamy dub, with a driving bass line, it goes down easily.
Next is the rapper, Mr. Lif, smacking the audience with a shift in energy with “Culture of Fear,” the sitar set aside for more aggressive electric guitar.
And so it goes. The audience can’t get bored. The band can’t get bored. There is always something changing, and it works.
And just when you think a danceable groove is a constant, well… hold on. Enjoy a nice percussive break while five chairs and a stool are set in place for an acoustic mini-set of four songs, a couple in Spanish (I think), a couple with brass, taken in turns by each of the band’s four singers given the opportunity to relate to the audience more intimately while enjoying more sonic space to share their vocal talents.
Rested? Good! Get those hips and hands moving as the party continues with the band’s second instrumental forage into an evolving landscape with a percussion solo, more sitar, trippy psychedelic sounds and vocal soundings (as best I could make out) by Puma Ptah.
The singers bring their own visual presence as well, with Puma’s more graceful moves, Mr. Lif’s faster arm articulations, Laura Vall’s kicks and inviting smile and Racquel Jones more soulful expressions and posturing. Each wanders the stage, lending a moving focal point and keeping the crowd moving.
Tabernacle was a great host sonically, it’s lighting system accentuating the performance without spotlighting a particular performer, and the crowd had just enough elbow space to express themselves.
Photos are a point in time as they don’t give a sense of the dynamic nature of the band. The band live-streamed this particular show on nugs.net and could do so in the future. But get out of the house and catch them on tour now, playing in the U.S. through early June before heading to Europe.
Setlist:
Acoustic set:
Set 2:
Encore:
