South-African, Pop-New Wave Band, St. Lucia, Celebrate Their Album Release!

The South African native Jean-Philip Gobbler, better known as St. Lucia, entertained a rather full crowd at Sonos Studio on September 11^th. This Pop/New Wave band was celebrating the release of their debut album, When the Night, with this listening party including a performance and an intimate discussion. The album will be released on October 8^th.

Appropriately, the studio walls were covered with projections of Diplo’s world travels that included many day to day moments in Cape Town, South Africa. Grobler mentioned this during the Q & A even.

Right away, I felt like St. Lucia’s music had the power to whisk you away on a tropical island vacation with their various synths, sweet echoing harmonies and fresh bouncy beats. They are a large outfit, with intricate parts contributing to a rich tropitronic (tropical + electronic) sound. St. Lucia’s song bank isn’t filled with many tracks yet, but that just means concert attendees get to hear almost every released song that the band has made. “All Eyes On You” was a crowd favorite, and many “Bad Lip Reading” renditions ensued from the audience members. Their final song, “September,” St. Lucia’s original single, was the highlight of the night and found the band members letting their hair fly and the good times roll.

I’ve written a lot of reviews on shows lately so they seem to blur together and truly talented bands become harder to find. Fortunately, St. Lucia is one of the good ones. There was no phone checking or fatigue during the show: the band kept the energy and quality sounds at a premium during their entire set. The set was like a musical vacation, just like its namesake.