Creating a bill with artists that match each other can be one of the hardest things for a venue. Some groups really just shouldn’t play with others.
For Rumba Café, Thursday’s lineup really came together for the venue.
ON AN ON has been touring with Savoir Adore, and the match shows. While different, the two bands complimented each other with an electronic streak to the indie tunes both groups played.
Savoir Adore opened the night with low lights and no spotlight on the group, instead the band chose to have colorful lights that shone from the floor of the stage.
The duo was oddly dressed in all white. White pants, white shirt, white dress. Everything was white, which gave the strange appearance of taking a family portrait in matching colors. Where the all-white factor did benefit was the way the lights reflected off the clothing. The bright light panels situated on the floor illuminated and colored the white clothing.
The members looked like they genuinely were having a good time on stage. They danced, there was a lot of head bobbing and they looked authentically pleased with the music they were creating. At times the lead singer’s antics were almost too overdone, but I would rather have seen that on stage than someone who doesn’t seem to care that they have an audience listening.
As the band began “Bodies,” red lights hit the members, and smoke rolled onto the stage. The chorus exploded from the stage with a high-energy hit.
Half electronic, half instrumentation, Savoir Adore kept a nice balance between the two elements. Neither was overdone.
What I could have done without? The hand motions.
During “Loveliest Creature” the band had hand motions that went with the chorus. It wasn’t elaborate, just the lifting of all the band member’s hands in unison, but it was odd, especially since they were dressed in all white, it gave the illusion of angels rising off the stage, which was really distracting.
During “Transylvanian Candy Patrol,” the lead singer, who was incredibly energetic (his extreme sweating a sign of that) broke two strings. During the song, strobe lights streaked across the stage, and was one of the most lively songs the band played.
The main act was ON AN ON, and the best part of the act was the lighting. Rather than using a generic spotlight on the main singer, the band had a constant projection of changing light and swirling colors on the stage. There was no main source, which made the projections look like it was enveloping the entire stage with different patterns of light.
Where Savoir Adore was enthusiastic, ON AN ON took a more mellow approach to its performance. The songs had an almost nostalgic feel to them, which is a hard characteristic to have with synthesizers.
As the group moved through their set, the female singer called out to the crowd an invitation to come “hang out” with them at the front if the audience was feeling energized with the next song. “It’s fine either way,” she said.
Her request brought about a dozen or so people onto the before empty floor area, but Rumba was still not packed, probably due to thl rain that had been happening all day.
“We drying out at all?” the male singer asked. When several dripping people responded no, he said it clearly wasn’t hot enough yet.
ON AN ON then played “Cops,” which continued with the kind of mystical, dreamy quality the music had.
“Cops” was followed by a Hot Chip cover, “Boy From School.”
ON AN ON’s performance sounded like it should the soundtrack for the next indie film coming through Sundance Film Festival, and the look the lights gave the show matched.