Santigold’s Brilliance Lights Up Hollywood

Santigold belongs to a very rare breed of musicians: The kind that’s not about fame and flashy performances with elaborate backdrops and half naked dancers, who haven’t eaten in weeks. The kind that’s not over-popularized. The kind that still believes in making authentic and unique music. She has the makings of a pop queen, yet she doesn’t seem to buy into the commercial pop music industry. Her music is witty and catchy, yet still comes from her soul. She has found the perfect way to fuse punk with reggae, indie rock and electronica and the outcome is simply original and brilliant.

So clearly, Santigold’s show at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles on Thursday night was a long awaited treat. As expected, her stage set up was simple, shifting the focus more to the music itself. During a short intermission, a fake red carpet was brought on stage. The sort you might find at an award show. Santigold and her dancers struck poses to fake camera flashes lighting up the stage. It was clever. It was different. Maybe slightly poking fun at LA’s it-scene. Or maybe she just wanted to have fun with it. After all, Santigold’s most recent album, 99c, is on the lighter, more playful side of things. Just take a look at the website promoting her latest album, for example. It resembles a terrible TV infomercial and has windows popping up that make you question if you’re on the right site or if you just accidentally downloaded a virus. Or look at the bizarre cover of her new album, which shows her shrink-wrapped surrounded by a bunch of random things.

One thing is for sure, Santigold is always up to try new things and surprise with the unexpected. So of course she just learned how to play bass and decided to play it on stage for the first time ever in front of an L.A. crowd. The woman is fearless. She likes to break rules. She likes to challenge the status quo and switch it up. She explores and enhances and transforms and creates, and we get to be the lucky ones to watch it all happen and enjoy her final product. It doesn’t really get much better than that.