Sylvan Esso Entreats Music Tastes Good To Get Sweaty With Them

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When lead singer Amelia Meath asks, “Are you guys ready to get sweaty?” with a mischievous grin after the first two songs, you know it’s gonna get good.

As someone who’d been introduced to Sylvan Esso’s excellent single Coffee and (shamefully) hadn’t probed much further, I wasn’t sure what to expect beyond a friend of mine shouting, “Yo, Sylvan Esso puts on a rockin’ show!” at my back as I ran out the door to Sunday evening’s acts. One girl with a mic and one guy with a laptop. How exciting can that be? As it turns out: plenty.

Singer Amelia Meath and producer (aka: guy with a laptop) Nick Sanborn are a dynamite duo onstage. The pretty flashing lights in the background were fun, but the real heat comes from the connection the two of them have to each other and the music. Is it possible for the artist to dance more than the audience? Yes. I’m into it, guys.

Meath has a quirky, springy, almost Bjork-like lilt to her voice which pairs seamlessly with Sanborn’s electronic arrangements, teaming up for a super fresh, EDM-tinged, dance pop sound. If you like their audio, you’ll love them live. The duo’s full-body commitment brings a new energy to their tracks; most of the people in the audience even put their iPhone’s away just to dance, which is no real easy feat. The audience was rewarded with a real treat of a setlist which included their hits (including “Coffee”! Yay!), but also threw in three new songs.

And if you do catch them live, try to stand front and center like I did. It’s kind of the ideal spot to watch a show, obviously, but maybe, JUST MAYBE, you’ll be lucky enough to have Amelia look you directly in the eye and, with a wry grin, pull up her shirt and flash you during the crescendo of one of their new tracks. But don’t tell me about it, because I’m currently feeling like the luckiest girl in the world and I’m just gonna pretend like it was a one time thing with Amelia and myself.

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CLICK HERE to check out the rest of our coverage of Music Tastes Good 2016