Gig Review: Grimes at Paradiso, Amsterdam

Grimes (Claire Boucher) performed at Paradiso in Amsterdam on Sunday, Feb 28. This concert was scheduled at the front-end of her tour and gave us a good idea of what to expect for festival sets slated later this summer.

Her set comprised of dance-y, bass heavy tunes: songs from her new album ‘Artangels‘, two singles ‘Go‘ and ‘Phone Sex‘, and a couple songs from ‘Visions’ (Oblivion and Genesis). Her songs from ‘Visions’ were remastered and remixed to better compliment her more recently amplified happy hardcore techno sound.

Without Aristophanes touring alongside Grimes, Boucher substituted her collaborator’s Taiwanese raps with her own Russian verses for the song ‘SCREAM’.

Grimes performed with two interpretive dancers, a backup vocalist, and camouflage draping for some effective light play. There were also lasers. Lots of lasers.

She skipped the fake encore exit (something much appreciated) and ended with Kill v. Maim.

All in all, this performance reminded us that hardworking, professional musicians still exist: and not all artists who roll through Amsterdam will be too stoned to perform (ehem Bob Moses) because the novelty of legal marijuana is too much to handle.

That, and is it festival season yet?? We can only hope to catch Grimes at a bigger stage where the lasers and bass can fill the space. Check out Artangels if you haven’t already, it’s amazing.