I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: January 28, 2026] Sudan Archives

I’ve known about Sudan Archives since her first album came out.  I wanted to see her in 2020, but her show sold out.  Then it was just before the COVID shutdown and her show wasn’t cancelled but hardly anyone went so I could have gone (but I didn’t know that and probably wouldn’t have gone anyway).  I had a ticket to see her a couple years ago but didn’t make it.  But then I finally saw her at All Things Go in 2023,so I was excited to get to see her again at her own show.

This show was postponed by one day because of all of the snow.  Initially I didn’t think I would be able to make it because we had tickets to something else tonight.  But I managed to reschedule that and was really happy that I made it to this show.

And wow, what a transformation.

The stage was set with three plexiglass platforms. On the left was a small table with a violin and some electronics.  I was in front of that.  In the middle was a taller circle with her new flying V violin on a stand.  And at the far side was a computer and a table.

The lights went dark and she came out.  The sound effects on the computer made it sound like she was robotic.  And it was still dark on stage so I’m not sure if everyone could see her because it was silent in the audience.  She slowly walked over to the computer.  Every time she moved her body it followed mechanical sounds.  And each step sounded like a huge robot stomp.  Finally, she moved to the center area and pulled out her violin bow–to the sound of a sword being unsheathed, and the crowd went nuts.

She stood atop the center plexiglass and started playing her violin.  It sounded so good while mixed with the backing music.  She was also singing, although I couldn’t see her face at first.  Her voice sounded great too.  And I soon realized that it was going to be just her up there.  Amazing.

The first song was DEAD, the opening song of the new album.  The lighting was dark as she sang and played.  After the dramatic opening, she moved over to the computer, which I assume was connected and possibly ran her backing tracks.  She jumped back to the center platform with her flying V violin, playing, turning away from the audience then looking back over her shoulder.  It was flirtatious but also sounded great.

For the second song, she returned to the computer area and picked up two clear drum sticks.  She then proceeded to pound out the rhythmic sounds that feature in NOIRE.

Once she started Yea Yea Yea she became more interactive with the audience.  I was on the barrier and she came over and pointed right at me a few times, which was unsettling because she was very intense.  She got the crowd to chant along to “Im not– average” as she introduced NBPQ, a rousing anthem of individuality.

I really liked the way she could go from rousing dance beats to pretty violin melody, all while still singing.  Interestingly she did have a microphone stand with a mic on it (mostly she used the wireless headset).  But when she sang Touch Me she used the other mic which had an echo effect on it.

When she stood on the center platform and the black lights flashed upon her, her eyed glowed in an otherworldly way–I don’t know what kind of contacts she had in, but between that and the cool lines of makeup around her eyes she looked amazing.

The violin is pretty versatile and I loved when she brought it to the front of the stage and started playing it like a guitar–picking out the slow melody of Nont for Sale.  Although when she did a sing along (hey hey hey hey) she came over to us and asked us to sing and stomped off saying I can’t hear you.  This surprised me because I thought the crowd was really into it, but they did sound kind of quiet to me too.

I enjoyed that during Come and Find You she resumed the robotic movements and even seemed to be staggering around the stage like the words were hurting her.  She really put everything into the performance.

Everyone had a lot of fun when she got to Freakalizer.  She asked where her freaks were at and if we knew who her type was.  And then she brought up a young woman from the audience who was invited to dance on the central platform.  Sudan Archives walked around her singing the words to A Bug’s Life.  I was really impressed with the woman’s dancing and I saw her after the show and yep, she was just someone from the audience who was pulled up on stage.

Things slowed down for She’s Got Pain until she played a fantastic solo that sounded like an Irish fiddle solo–a cool contrast to the rest of the song.  Of course she played the violin a lot, but not as much as I would have expected–she had a lot more going on.  But from time to time she would play a killer fast melody showing that, yea, she has amazing chops.  And the violin melody of Come Meh Way is such a great earworm.

She ended the set with Selfish Soul: “I don’t want no struggles I don’t want no fears.”  And that was that.

At a previous show it says she played Confessions, the first song of hers that I really liked.  But she didn’t play it for us, which is a small bummer but the overall show was so good it doesn’t matter.

She left for the encore break and when she came back she asked if we’d mind if Halima came back out.  She told us that she liked Halima’s song cocoa body so much that she wanted to play it with her.  So Halima sang and Sudan Archives played  the violin.  So even though we’d heard the song already, it had a very different vibe.  And there was even more dancing of course.

For the final two songs she returned to the drum machine an played the looping vocals of The Nature of Power.  Mid song, she left the stage while the music continued.  It seemed like an odd way to end the show and then suddenly she was in the audience singing.  She was more or less in the middle, sang a bit of the verse and then was helped back up on stage for the final song, the anthemic The BPM.

She thanked us all for coming to her BPM tour and then she was gone.

She had told us that tomorrow was her birthday and I thought it was sweet that after the show ended a bunch of people in the crowd sang her happy birthday even though she was backstage.

Sudan Archives isn’t exactly my kind of music.  She’s far more pop adjacent than I’m used to, but she is so talented and her voice is so good and now, geez, what a show she puts on.  I would definitely see her again next time she comes around.

 

2025 Union Transfer	2023 All Things Go
DEAD ß	Milk Me Ô
NOIRE ß	Ciara Ô
YEA YEA YEA ß	Freakalizer Ô
NBPQ (Topless) Ô	NBPQ (Topless) Ô
TOUCH ME ß	OMG BRITT Ô
Nont for Sale ⇓	Nont for Sale ⇓
Ciara Ô	Come Meh Way æ
COME AND FIND YOU ß	Selfish Soul Ô
Freakalizer Ô
MY TYPE ß
A BUG’S LIFE ß (with audience member as special dancer)
MS. PAC MAN ß
SHE’S GOT PAIN ß
A COMPUTER LOVE ß
OMG BRITT Ô
Come Meh Way æ
HEAVEN KNOWS ß
Selfish Soul Ô
encore
Cocoa Body (Halima cover with Halima singing)
THE NATURE OF POWER ß
THE BPM ß

ß THE BPM (2025) [did not play David & Goliath; Los Cinci]
Ô Natural Brown Prom Queen (2022)
⇓ Sink (2018)
æ Sudan Archives (2017)

 

I had not heard of Halima, but she seemed to have some buzz around her.  She came out looking fierce in a half jacket with huge shoulders.  She had beads in her hair, marched out to the mic all by herself and started her backing music.

It was really impressive that she stood there with just the mic and her backing music playing as she sang her genre-unspecific music.  I really enjoyed the spare backing sounds of her songs.  omoge was a series of soft notes as she sang gently over them.    Her second song (which I never found the name of) was a bit more bouncy with some deep bass notes.

I really liked the sounds of cocoa body–a kind of percussive melody accompanied by deep bass notes.  Most of her songs were pretty short, but this one did have a middle instrumental section where Halima showed off her great dance moves.

Halima is British but she lives in Brooklyn.  I loved hearing her talk–there’s something really cool sounding about the way British singers say Phillleeee. 

I liked the even more staccato sounds of eau de vie like a modified piano plinking out the notes.  Oops has more of a beat and got people moving.  She played one older song, Vehicle, which had a bit more of a rapping feel.  But her delivery of it was great.

Then she ended with my favorite song Eleven Eleven.  It had a heavy beat and a cool delivery.  She was a really enjoyable opening act.  She said she’d be at the merch table and invited people to come chat because “we could be friends.”

On my way out of the building she was standing in the doorway and I would have loved to chat with her but there were several people in the way so I just headed home early instead.