[ATTENDED: April 28, 2022] Son Lux
April 28th turned out to be a banner night of shows. There were four I was interested in seeing–three of those I was really interested in. It was very hard to choose especially since one of them was a show rescheduled to that night and I already had tickets to a different one.
I had seen Son Lux in an NPR Tiny Desk Concert (the NPR folks love Son Lux) and was blown away by all three of them. Drummer Ian Chang is just amazing to watch as he plays all sorts of different things and in unusual rhythms. But then I would notice that guitarist Rafiq Bhatia was making some incredible sounds out of his guitar and I would wind up watching him for awhile. And all along, keyboardist and vocalist Ryan Lott would be singing and playing these heartbreaking melodies.
I knew I had to see them and since I had been waiting the longest to see them, they won out.
And it was amazing. The band had just scored the film Everything Everywhere All at Once so there were some songs from that in the mix, but mostly this set came from their new trio of albums Tomorrows I, II and III.
The songs were gorgeous and soaring or quiet and meditative or jazzy and fun. They each went far beyond their own length, with solos from all the members of the band.
At one point Ian and Rafiq played a wonderful interplay and Ryan just stood back away from his keys and watched as we all did.
The only concession to playing a “hit” is that they played an updated version of their song “Easy” which would be the closest thing they have to a popular song. They even brought out local rapper Low G (I think) to do some freestyling over the middle of the song.
The rest of the set was wonderful and magical.
- Vacancy III
- Only I
- Prophecy II
- Plans We Made I
- Honesty I
- Easy £
- Last Light I
- Live Another Life II
- A Different Kind of Love III
encore - Unbind III
I Tomorrows I (2020)
II Tomorrows II (2020)
III Tomorrows III (2020)
£ Lanterns (2013)
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