Review: Louis the Child at The Anthem
Photo courtesy of The Anthem.
Around this time last year, Louis The Child stopped by the 9:30 Club for two sold out back to back shows and I was grateful enough to be in attendance. In my last review of the duo, I illustrated the immense success from their early breakthrough into the electronic music scene. I quickly realized that I was completely unprepared for the exponential growth simply over the course of the year.
Returning back to D.C. on their Here for Now tour, this year the duo was able to sell out their November 8 show at The Anthem with support from Léon and Sebastian Paul. To put into context, a sold out show at 9:30 Club’s capacity is set at 1,200 people whereas The Anthem ranges from 2,500 to 6,000. Personally, this is a mind-blowing feat for a long time fan such as myself as I grew up supporting their small venue shows, festival sets and coveted afterparty club room performances. As I walked through the security areas of the venue to a fully packed crowd waiting for the openers to begin, I began reminiscing on all the many times I have seen Louis The Child before and I wondered where the night’s show would take me.
The opening acts were perfectly chosen to represent the varying energies and artistic expression of the main act. Starting the night off with Sebastian Paul, his mix of future and retro sounds as expressed in his newest EP “Trojan Horse.” Sebastian Paul’s performance paired greatly with the more experimental Louis the Child tracks. Following his performance, came Léon. A Swedish singer pouring soulful indie pop melodies from the inside out, Léon’s purple and pink hued lights washed over the crowd. Her pop and R&B vocals flowed throughout the room like honey, accompanied by light and airy percussions and a strong bass guitar line. Her performance ranged from pop ballads that paralleled greatly with the more soulful Louis the Child compositions. The end of her performance was met with joyful dancing as she belted out a stirring rendition of “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac.
By 9:30 p.m., both the openers had efficiently warmed up the crowd and my friends and I were eagerly waiting for the headliners. The lights quickly dimmed and the stage was flooded with fog and colorful lasers. Through the intro the crowd was quickly able to pinpoint the melody for one of their classic songs, “It’s Strange.” The duo then appeared on stage and greeted their fans with the biggest of smiles on their face before smoothly transitioning with their song “LOVE” featuring Elohim. The beginning of the set featured rainbow lasers, disco and deep house influenced mixes and psychedelic rollercoaster visuals. They mixed in new wave remixes of classic songs such as “Last to Leave,” “Love is Alive” and “Weekend,” which were an absolute treat to hear. About half way into the set, the energy shifted from more pop-adjacent energy to deeper bass influenced songs. One of the most memorable of these moments was during a new beat rendition of “Fire,” accompanied by vertical lasers and blue psychedelic visuals. The duo then used their remix of “All Night” to transition back to the bright and harmonic energy, ending the night with a mesmerizing visuals and a satisfying dose of confetti.
Louis The Child is one of the few artists who effortlessly draw in supporters from all corners of the electronic music community and consistently exceeds expectations. The duo maintains such a large range in music from their Playground Radio sessions and Candy mix, to electronic music anthems such as their remixes of “Blasé” by Ty Dolla $ign and “Compass” by Zella Day. This event showed me just how rare it is that an artist can appeal to that of the full spectrum of music lovers. In my last review of the duo, I raved about the mastery of their use of experimental soundscapes and popular melodies and this has not changed. However, my favorite aspect of this particular tour stop was not just simply the music or visual aspect of the performance but rather being able to bookmark the growth of one of my favorite music groups.