Wet Leg’s discography is still just two songs deep, but that didn’t seem to faze any of the throngs of people who came out Friday night to see them at Supersonic, a small, brick-walled club with floor-to-ceiling windows onto the street. Wet Leg – Supersonic, Friday, November 19 “The poetry/It’s not lost on me/I’m left asking/How it found me,” Jenkins sang in the slowcore dirge “Ambiguous Norway,” and for all the specificity of the lyric-the song is a lament for her late collaborator David Berman-it could just as well have been a way of summing up the subtle magic palpable every time Jenkins and her bandmates chose to do less instead of more. The band’s restraint meant that even the most modest crescendo was deeply felt.
Greve was the understated star of the show she had an unerring way of finding an empty space in the music, then seeding it with melody. On a short set of songs culled from her contemplative 2021 album An Overview on Phenomenal Nature, Jenkins and her bandmates (guitarist Michael Flynn, bassist Jack Seaton, drummer Justin Allen, keyboardist Gerard Black, and saxophonist Charlotte Greve) plied a stripped-down sound with nods to Mazzy Star, the War on Drugs, and even Talk Talk. Seasoned public speakers know that lowering your voice is a tried-and-true technique for making people lean in, and the New York singer-songwriter did something similar to make the 400-cap room feel a tenth its size. There may have been six people on stage, but Cassandra Jenkins’ Friday-night set felt more like a secret shared between two old friends.
Back out on the street, a full moon glowed faintly through the cloud cover.Ĭassandra Jenkins – Café de la Danse, Friday, November 19 Then the cheers came rushing into that empty space, and it was all over. For just a moment, before exploding into applause, the crowd was silent it felt like the sea had parted.
Then, some imperceptible limit having been reached, the musicians hit the brakes, slowing the tempo and lowering the volume until nothing was audible except for the air through their horns and the faintest brush of drumsticks. Idehen returned to incant the song’s charged refrain: “Don’t wanna hear that racist claptrap/Anybody chat that crap get clapped back/Don’t wanna take my country back, mate/I wanna take my country forward.” He led the crowd in a rousing call-and-response of those final two lines, and the band heaved like a train just barely grabbing the rails. The group somehow found the energy for an encore, which was impressive-and fortunate, because their performance of “My Queen Is Doreen Lawrence” made for the most moving stretch of the night. She closed the set the only way possible: with “Sad Girlz Luv Money,” which had the entire room singing along: “Get the fuck outta my way/I’m gonna get paid, yeah/I wanna get paid, yeah/Just gimme my mu-la-la-la.” For 45 minutes or so, Amaarae was the life coach everybody needed. Amaarae has a high, slightly wispy voice, and in songs like “Fancy,” she could be demure, almost coquettish, but her attitude was equal parts playful, defiant, and proud-particularly introducing “Leave Me Alone.” (“If they ain’t got no money for you,” she advised the crowd, “say, ‘Leave me the fuck alone!’ If they don’t have good sex for you, say, ‘Leave me the fuck alone!’ If they don’t have positive vibes, say, ‘Leave me the fuck alone!’ If all they have for you is negativity and lies, say, ‘Leave me the fuck alone!’”) That song, like most of the night’s, turned into a vigorous call-and-response between Amaarae and the amped-up, freshly empowered crowd. As they eased into songs from her 2020 album The Angel You Don’t Know, their playing tended to emphasize her music’s Afropop and Caribbean elements with carefully syncopated grooves and lilting, clean-toned guitar lines.
Clad in a red dress, red headscarf, and dark glasses that never left her face, she came prepared for drama her bandmates-bassist Daisy George, guitarist Raquel Martins, and crack drummer David Bitan-prefaced her walk-on with hard funk vamping that recalled James Brown’s hype-inducing intros.
With Amaarae’s “Sad Girlz Luv Money Remix” featuring Kali Uchis and Moliy having just entered the Billboard Hot 100, the Ghanaian-American singer’s appearance at La Gaîté Lyrique felt like a victory lap from the moment she took the stage. Amaarae – La Gaîté Lyrique, Wednesday, November 17