It’s always a good thing when your first show of tour in Los Angeles sells out and you get to add another. Saturday night, at The Roxy, Montreal’s Charlotte Cardin made the final-final stop of a brief North American tour for her new-ish album Phoenix.
A huge and adoring crowd packed the Sunset Strip venue and danced and sang along and vibed to Cardin’s R&B/Pop songs in a set featuring songs from the new album and some classics from her EPs. Highlights included entrancing laid-back “Romeo” from Phoenix (dedicated to her boyfriend), “Sex To Me” with its pulsing energetic island vibe which really got the crowd moving and turned the night into a dance party, and sensual and powerful “Dirty Dirty” from 2017’s Main Girl EP, a song that is an excellent showcase for Cardin’s rich and powerful voice.
An informal poll conducted by Cardin indicated there were many French-speakers in attendance and there were a handful of Francophone songs in the set beginning with “Je quitte” from Phoenix, a song about needing a break from a relationship and moving on. Basically, the theme of the new album, burning it all down to start over and come back better than ever.
The main set wrapped up with “Main Girl”, and the encore featured 2 songs from the newer than new “deluxe” version of Phoenix (out this month), beautiful and expansive new pop single “Scorpio Season” and a stripped-down version of heartbreaking “Over Me”.
Charlotte Cardin has a string of shows back in Montreal in early January, but tour dates pick up again on the west coast at the Chapel in San Francisco January 20th followed by Portland, Seattle, and a handful of Western Canada shows.
The deluxe version of Phoenix was released November 12 with 6 additional songs. And they’re all great! Apparently there were 50 or so demos made for the album so maybe there will be even more deluxe versions in the future?
Words and photos by Tim Aarons
