Röyksopp – Club Soda – 19.03.11
The only thing that made the mandatory coat check at Club Soda a little less aggravating was the fact that the venue was sweltering from the minute I walked in. Jon Hopkins was also warming things up with his glitchy atmospheric electronica and while it took awhile for the audience to be shaken out of their conversations, Hopkins didn’t give people much of a choice with his powerful bass and catchy hooks. Hopkins remained hunched over his various electronic gadgets and spasmodically danced and shifted his hands around from knob to drum pad. The music didn’t stop for more time than it took for him to take a sip from his beer. To be honest I could have watched him all night, but as they say, all good things must come to an end and this end meant that it was going to be the beginning of the set that everyone was here to see.
When Röyksopp took the stage and started their set with “Eple” from their debut LP, Melody A.M. I thought that it was a nice gift to the fans that have been there since the beginning. When they followed up the song with “So Easy”, “Remind Me” and “Sparks”, also from their debut, I began to wonder if I had somehow stepped into a time machine that transported me back to 2001, the year their first album was released. Finally, the Norwegian duo played “Happy Up Here” from their 2009 release, Junior, and I was able to stop wondering what year it was. The duo was joined on stage by some guest musicians and Anneli Drecker filled in beautifully when some female vocals were needed.
What was great about Röyksopp’s live performance was that they didn’t merely just reproduce the songs from their albums and call it a night. Sure, they played a lot of songs that people wanted to hear but for much of their almost two hour long set they just played music that people could dance to, and the crowd loved every minute of it, along with the numerous crazy costumes, hats and goggles that they donned. Two encores later, they finished things off with a wild rendition of “Tricky Tricky” from Junior and said goodnight to a lot of happy Montrealers.
– Greg Lozoff
Röyksopp
Jon Hopkins
Photography by Sandy Jolin
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