Last Tuesday, Jan. 28, the Brooklyn-based synthpop band St. Lucia played a sold-out show at the intimate Bluebird Theater. Despite the cold temperatures, the crowd warmed up by dancing all night to the band’s upbeat sounds.
St. Lucia’s show was reminiscent of a 1980s high school prom; high-energy hipsters wearing neon outfits were dancing at the front of the stage all night, unaware of anyone else around them, while the rest of the young twenty-somethings in the crowd silently grooved toward the back. It was hard for anyone at the show to sit still. The lights from their set and the enthusiasm from lead singer and frontman Jean-Philip Grobler, whose stage presence is magnetizing, was a key aspect of what made their show so entertaining. Grobler, originally from South Africa, was donning a zebra button down and the entire set incorporated floral fabric sheets that covered the synthesizer and the keyboard, which helped give the show a safari feel.
The concert began at 8 p.m. with a short set from the opening act Sir Sly, known for their song “Ghost.” The crowd eagerly waited for St. Lucia to finally take the stage, and around 9:15 p.m., they began their set with “The Night Comes Again” from their debut album, “When The Night,” released in October 2013. The song, which begins with a one-minute instrumental break, built up the energy of the crowd before leading into the high-pitched vocals from Grobler and his partner (both on stage and off) Patricia Beranek. The first song set the stage for the high energy that would continue throughout the rest of their short set.
Short and sweet and only a little over an hour long, St. Lucia’s set consisted mostly of the songs from their debut album, including “Call Me Up,” “Elevate,” “Before the Dive” and “Wait for Love.” Halfway through their set they slowed things down with a duo acoustic performance from Grobler and Beranek, which left the crowd feeling uneasy as they were left to sit still. But before the crowd could go numb, they jumped back into the groove with a fan favorite, “All Eyes On You.” St. Lucia’s songs cater towards crowd involvement, and throughout the show they had fans clapping, jumping and singing along, especially during the lesser-known song “We Got it Wrong,” where Grobler asked the crowd to help sing along the lyrics (“Don’t go away”) and the throng of people in the Bluebird Theater all yelled in unison.
After only an hour, the encore started with their synth-heavy EP “September” which starts out with a two-minute long instrumental beat before incorporating the bass, guitar and drums from bandmates Nick Brown, Ross Clark and Nick Paulalong with Grobler and Beraneck’s high-pitched vocals. Their two-song encore started out strong, but the elevated energy levels from September dissipated for their final song, “When the Night.”
