The North Carolina electro-pop duo’s return to Grand Rapids was full of catchy material that inspired a young capacity crowd to heat up the dance floor. (Review, photo gallery)
Dance Mania: Sylvan Esso on stage at 20 Monroe Live on Thursday night. (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
The last time Sylvan Esso passed through Grand Rapids, it was for an under-the-radar set at Calvin College in 2015.
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Since then, the electro-pop duo — Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn — has toured relentlessly, released a sophomore album and captivated an international audience. So this time around, not surprisingly, they played to a capacity crowd at Grand Rapids’ 20 Monroe Live.
Amelia Meath of Sylvan Esso (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
Backed by a flourishing light show and extensive backing tracks, the Durham, N.C., act channeled powerful energy, inspiring the room full of fans to dance and sing wildly, turning the performance at the venue into a club-styled affair.
Older songs like the bass-heavy “Coffee” and the playful “Hey Mami” prompted the most enthusiastic reaction from the crowd.
Other highlights included “The Glow,” a dreamily reminiscent song with an uptempo ’80s feel, and “Die Young,” a catchy and electronic-soaked single from the band’s most recent release, “What Now.”
Throughout the set, Meath danced elegantly around the stage while producer Sanborn grooved over a tabletop of digital gadgetry, both entirely lost in the music and the crowd’s infectious energy.
Indeed, that infectious energy may have induced Sylvan Esso to keep things going in Grand Rapids long after their performance wrapped up: After giving the club a shoutout from the stage, the duo swung by The Pyramid Scheme about five blocks away to play some pinball later the same evening.
New York City songwriter and producer Suzi Analogue opened the 20 Monroe Live show which was sponsored by WYCE (88.1 FM). — Anna Sink contributed to this review
PHOTO GALLERY: Sylvan Esso and Suzi Analogue at 20 Monroe Live
Photos by Anthony Norkus and Kendra Kamp
