Thursday night, electropop acts Goldroom and Autograf brought their tour to The Novo in downtown Los Angeles and it had the feel of being in a Vegas nightclub — without the overpriced drinks
First — there’s The Novo itself. It has that tiered Vegas nightclub feel down to the floor pit. The drinks are a little expensive — it is DTLA — but nothing approaching the $20 beers at one of the big nightclubs in Vegas. The vibe of The Novo for these two acts was also much friendlier than you get on the Strip. But what made it feel most like Vegas was how into it people were for it being a Thursday night. There were loads of people dressed up for a night out, all getting it like it was a Friday or Saturday instead of midweek.
Chicago trio Autograf hit the stage and they are one of those groups that have come to define the “future house” genre. Their production is of a high level — the stage lighting was pretty awesome and the amount of instrumentation that features in their live performance rivals that of any other electronic group. Aside from the usual electronic drum pads that you’ll see most electronic acts touring with, they brought some marimbas, live synths and even a keytar. One thing I learned watching Autograf is that you can never get too much keytar.
The highlight of the set was hearing Autograf transform Flume’s hit “Say It” — making me wish I could have found it on Soundcloud when I got home that night. The entire set was really upbeat and would fit perfectly on any festival lineup. Autograf will be playing Prohibition NYE on the final day of 2016 — taking place at Union Station. I definitely recommend checking them out.
Headlining Thursday night was Goldroom — one of my favorite live electronic acts. These two acts usually switch off headlining from night to night, and with the show taking place in Goldroom’s adopted hometown of Los Angeles, it was their night to shine. Goldroom is the project of Josh Legg, who studied at USC, which isn’t that far from the large confines of The Novo. There was definitely a good USC contingent at this show.
Whenever I hear Goldroom, I feel like I’m in a level of Streets of Rage 2 for Sega Genesis. Like Autograf, they bring tons of live instrumentation to their sets. At Coachella this year, they had an early day tent set and made the most out of it. With a new album West of the West having dropped just a few months ago, they had a completely different set than back in April
When Goldroom plays live, it’s Nikki Segal taking over all the female vocalist parts from their songs and she did a killer job all night. High point of the night was “Only You Can Show Me.” It has this ’90s dance vibe in the vein of Crystal Waters — or even Ace of Base.
One thing different from their Coachella set, Goldroom dropped their most recognizable edits for their own material. Gone were their versions of CHVRCHES and MO songs, but people didn’t seem to upset as the material from their new record is really strong and had more of a flow from song to song.
When the show came to an end around midnight, everyone seemed pretty danced out. If you ever get a chance to catch either of these acts on tour, don’t miss out. Just bring some shoes comfy enough to dance in.
Photos courtesy of Monique Hernandez
