Grimes, HANA, Tei Shi at 9:30 Club on May 13, 2016

Dana, Jill, Natalie and I went to the Grimes concert at the 9:30 Club on May 13, 2016. It was rescheduled from December and was an early show. I was very sad when it was canceled in December (Grimes got sick) because it had been one of the first stops on the tour for Art Angels, which ended up album of the year on a whole lot of lists. It’s a really fantastic feeling to be into an artist who’s riding a high of critical acclaim and is launching a new tour, full of energy. Instead, we got the 6-months-into-the-tour show, which is well practiced, but formulaic.

The first opener was HANA, who also acted as a back-up singer during Grimes set.  She moved a little like Mo and had a high, ethereal voice. She seemed confident in her movements, but I didn’t find her music all that interesting. She seemed like an artist who might appeal to a tween/young teen crowd.

The second opener was Tei Shi, a traditional guitar band fronted by a female singer who seemed to be abusing her vocal cords. I wouldn’t be surprised if she ends up injured. There was one song that caught my interest, but they didn’t announce any song names and I counldn’t make out enough of the lyrics, so I don’t know which it was.

Grimes act was very good, and if I hadn’t seen Santigold the week before, I might have been more impressed. The two dancers (in sun glasses) did not look the same or dance the same, but they had the same detached aura as the Santigold dancers. One was an Asian woman in a matrix-esque costume who moved a little like a ninja. The other dancer was a big, beautiful black woman who had a lot of attitude. Hana and Grimes rounded out the stage. Grimes is a trained dancer, but uses a style of dance that’s very twitchy and awkward – it’s her thing. Her banter persona comes off as appreciative and genuine, if also a little strange. Some of her song choices were not to my taste – like the screaming song she wrote with the Chinese rapper. At one point she did a song in Russian. Dana looked up her bio during the act and Grimes has exceptionally varied interests – including Russian literature. She did most of my favorite songs, so I can’t complain about the others in between. I do wish she hadn’t aimed bright lights into the audience – I hate that. And the sound mixing was truly awful. My ears hurt through the ear plugs from the too-high bass, and it was hard to hear her voice. There was one cheap but effective staging gimmick involving green laser light gloves. It looked good. Fun night.