There is something about a featured vocalist on an electronic music track that is so nebulous. They are voices that we come to know intimately in the towering warehouses beneath the laser beams. In those sweaty rooms with throbbing basslines, we remember the piercing call of Rob Swire, the ethereal coo of Haley, and the bright singing of Dragonette, but when do we ever see them live?
My first experience with Dragonette was through her vocals on the 2010 Kaskade track, “Fire in Your New Shoes.” Around this time, she also appeared on a Don Diablo track called “Animale” (a masterpiece about the millennial club culture of the 2010s). She has since collaborated on a beloved song with The Knocks, called “Slow Song,” and now has a full-length album with them, Revelation.
But a singer on stage with a DJ? It’s like seeing a mythical creature in real life!
Imagine my delighted surprise to see Dragonette on stage in a full 80s perm, a yellow leather blazer, and a matching skirt, singing in front of The Knocks with a fiery drag queen named Aquaria.
The venue Belasco is a gorgeous historic theater in downtown Los Angeles with a massive dance floor, easy viewing balconies, outdoor hang areas, and several bars (including one in a room that is delicately pink). They serve a variety of options for alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, the security was professional and unfussy, and parking was surprisingly bountiful and cheap.
Now, back to the performers.
The Knocks (Ben Ruttner and James Patterson) are the best mixers in the game. They write and produce for a litany of artists under every genre in the musical spectrum (Foster the People, ODESZA, Sofi Tucker, and MUNA to name a few). Because of this, they have a real knack for making music sound good in the room. Their aesthetic is very eighties, in drab business suits, with serious faces and sunglasses at night.
And Aquaria was the cherry on top. For those of you unfamiliar, Aquaria is a drag queen (nee Giovanni Lucca Palandrani) who lights the stage on fire with her strutting and dressy angular movements. The set opens up with her disguised as a janitor, cleaning the stage before surprising the audience. She serves c*** as she dances with the mop, twirls a landline phone cord around her fingers on a fluffy couch, and delivers a new kind of stage presence only a winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race could achieve.
The four artists each took their turns in the spotlight over the course of the evening. Keeping the crowd engaged with Dragonette‘s stellar singing, Aquaria‘s dance moves, and The Knocks‘ fire beats. In addition to playing much of their collaborative album, Revelation, they also interspersed classic 80s remixes including Madonna‘s “Vogue” and Pete Townshend‘s “Let My Love Open the Door,” as well as some contemporary pop to get the crowd moving. The whole evening was this amorphous combination of a concert, a DJ set, and a drag spectacle. For their encore, they performed “Slow Song,” much to the delight of the crowd.
With their combined ability to mix, vocalize, and perform, this little ensemble put on a hell of a performance with a great crowd at the Belasco. Their tour is over for now (until Phoenix AZ, March 6th), but with a winning recipe like this, I’m sure they’ll be at it again soon. I’m so glad to have been able to cover it!
The Indy Review 