Santigold and Dominique May 6, 2016 at Fillmore Silver Spring

Dana, Jill, and I went to see Santigold at the Fillmore in Silver Spring on Friday night, May 6 – partly because it was a Friday night show a few blocks from our homes, and partly because Santigold always puts on a good show. 

We arrived during the opener, Dominique. Dominique was a foul-mouthed rapper who I couldn’t understand even when she was speaking to the audience. For the “band”, there was a woman running a turntable and another whose job seemed to be pouring shots and occasionally telling the crowd to put their hands in the air. (They didn’t.) I have a hard time imagining Dominique going very far in the music industry, but I certainly don’t know a thing about her genre, so maybe I’m wrong.

Santigold’s act was very similar to her last tour, but with some enhancements. There was a fancier screen show, a few extra props, and an extra costume change. I liked how she worked different aspects of the “just getting by” theme into the visuals: 99 cent stores, “we buy gold”, and off-brand cheese puffs come to mind. She also used some absurdist visuals, like cats and rabbits with bobbing heads, and extreme oversized clothing. She had the same two dancers as before, and they are fun to watch – their style reminds me of the time before kids know there is a “right” way to dance, combined with the time when you and your friends made up dances to your favorite songs by acting them out and doing the same moves every time for the chorus. And then there were times when you could see the dancers using their extensive training. They still wore sunglasses the entire time and flat, expressionless faces, daring the audience to do anything but respect them. Dana looked up Santigold and discovered she’s 39 years old, pretty close to our ages, which got us thinking that she’s really figured it out – get the young girls to do the jumping up and down.