Oklou and Caroline Polachek Concert Review: A Lilith Fair Version of Electronica

Photo Credit: Tessa Byrns

For anyone noticing the abundance of exciting, obscure and up and coming female singer/songwriters producing and performing their own music lately, it is a mystery why there hasn’t been another Lilith Fair to showcase all of these performers. Enter Oklou and Caroline Polachek – just another example of Sarah McLachlan’s influence over young female musicians.

On December 10th at the Bluebird Theater in Denver, Colorado the eclectic crowd was treated to a spectacular performance from Caroline Polachek and opening act, Oklou.

Oklou, a French electronica singer/songwriter creates atmospheric soundscapes around her autotuned voice. Her music isn’t rambunctious like Charli XCX, another performer who is heavily reliant on autotuning her voice to oblivion to help create interesting sounds a normal human being cannot master, except for Polachek’s super human vocal range.

Oklou’s fascination with the synthesizer creates beautifully spacious landscapes alongside her use of repetitive hip-hop lite beats, her voice swimming around the special effects. Her lyrics are descriptive of an emotion hard to express. ‘God’s Chariots’ is exemplary of this.

“I wake up in a heatwave and everybody’s gone, my body can be always tight up until the dawn, take me closer to you boy, so we’re forever one, I see the God’s chariots but we don’t wanna kill a swan.”

A.G. Cook, PC Music label head and mastermind behind the futuristic sounds of pop/electronica (coined as hyperpop), has had his fingerprints on songs from Charli XCX. And Kim Petras received a shoutout from Oklou when she sang his song ‘Being Harsh’.

“Stay far on fire, its okay to forget, I tried so hard to learn to say, “Get out of my way,” stay around the fire, its okay to regret, I tried so hard to learn to say, “I’ll see you again.”

Oklou’s performance was that of a new and slightly unsure performer. She was gifted a frog from an audience member who she said she had previously spoken with during her Reddit Ask Me Anything segment.

Photo Credit: Tessa Byrns

For her set, Polachek played most of her debut solo album, ‘Pang’ with a live band starting from the beginning to the end and playing new, unreleased tracks as well as her slowed down version of ‘Breathless’ by The Corrs, released earlier this year. Polachek expressed her excitement at being with the crowd of the Bluebird because, she described, she had started her band, Chairlift, while going to the University of Colorado.

Polachek’s use of sonic landscapes alongside her extraordinary vocal range can be likened to Sarah McLachlan and is unlike any other female musician in this new generation of singer/songwriters. Though Polachek’s live performances are littered with arm movements that are very much taken from ‘Stop Making Sense’ era David Byrne.

‘Hit Me Where It Hurts’ is given even more energy than the studio recording because of Polachek’s emoting.

“I’m feeling like a butterfly trapped inside a place, maybe there’s something going, I’m not insane, if I’m already out of time, then make it worse, go on and hit me in the heart, hit me where it hurts.”

Polachek then moves on to the instrumentally sparse and sensual break up song, ‘I Give Up’. Her voice flitting between her distinct falsetto and the determined sound of her lower speaking register.

“It didn’t used to feel this good to be all alone, doing every damn thing I can to not go home, you gave me that list of things about myself to change, its not a rough patch, its not a phase, you and I, we fall apart, now I know what it means to unravel, it’s a new and shallow grief, an apathetic kind of self defeat.”

The most fun performances of the night were the bangers ‘Bunny is a Rider’, Polachek’s latest solo release, ‘Ocean of Tears’, ‘Caroline Shut Up’ and of course the hit, ‘So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings’ which had the crowd singing along to most of the song.

The performance of ‘Ocean of Tears’ a longing, unrequited love song, had Polachek’s angst on full display. The stage was set with the scene of a tempestuous storm full of purple skies and lightning flashes as the drummer raged on the drum set. This performance gave new life to the song that the studio version cannot live up to.

Polachek will finish up her solo tour this month. Next year she will be touring the United States as a supporting act on Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia tour.

by Tessa Byrns (Staff Music Writer)

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