Santigold House of Blues Wednesday, June 6
Santi White is a charmer, and she had the audience under her spell from the first notes of "Go," which opened last night's show at House of Blues. Her stew of dancehall (queue the reverb), electronica, rap and dub begs the body to move. Too bad there wasn't much room to move on the packed floor.
She kicked things off around 9 p.m., and while the weather may have kept some folks home, the big room was crammed with enthusiastic fans, and the audience was as diverse as the genres she draws on. On a small riser behind her and two dancers was her three-piece band, dressed in quasi-pharaoh outfits. Switching roles between guitar, bass/keys and drums (real and electronic), they left plenty of room on the stage for the dancing/roaming singers.
The set list was laden with new and old, and a few covers thrown in for good measure. "L.E.S. Artistes" was queued second, and a dancing horse break (of course!) allowed Santi a costume change a few songs in. She reappeared in Egyptian motif, which remained for the duration of her performance.
So, how to solve the problem of a crowded dance floor? Santigold's solution was to invite about 30 people up for some ass-shakery during "Creator." A megawatt smile constant throughout the ensuing chaos, she and the band didn't miss a beat, or get too upset when some fans violated the "no cameras" request she issued before the invite up.
The set ended with a short encore, after about 80 minutes and 20 songs. The crowd filed out, but there was a group of hardcore fans waiting for a meet and greet with her in lobby. As Santi herself said, she'd never seen a rowdier crowd.
