A short and sweet write-up for a short and sweet show. Actually, the concert wasn’t all that short; it was just punctual.
Alison Goldfrapp, the UK’s electro-diva extraordinaire, put on a hyperreal performance last Wednesday at Seattle’s Showbox, SoDo, that was (as previously stated) the most punctual performance I have ever seen. At exactly 10pm PDT Goldfrapp started her/their performance, and at exactly 11pm PDT Goldfrapp ended said performance. Roughly five minutes later (give or take a few seconds) Goldfrapp returned to stage to encore the shit out of the maw **maw generally means mouth** of adoring fans. To get an idea of the crowd make-up, imagine packing all the British nationals in Seattle into the Showbox, sprinkling in some Neighbors’ regulars, cooking at 98.6 degrees for 1.5 hours, and adding a topping of fashionably late Linda’s hipsters for the final 30 minute broil.
The performance itself was wonderfully rich and grandiose. Alison managed a near spot-on vocal journey through her catalogue of songs, old as well as new. She was accompanied by 6 or 7 musicians on various instruments ranging from harp to M-Audio soft-synth controllers, which I found odd for a band as large as the mighty “G."
When the songs were slow and spooky. the audience swayed with trance-like fixation. When the dance hits perforated the set, the crowd screamed, jumped, and ground genitals (in that order.) Goldfrapp puts on a solid show which is visually as well as aurally stimulating. The band is technically tight, the lights accompany the moods of the songs, and Alison Goldfrapp is a sight to behold. I would liken the crowd’s adoration to that which I have seen at Bjork and Feist shows. Maybe it’s a European thing?
