Sofi Tukker’s “Wet Tennis” tour rolled into the Shrine Auditorium outdoor zone for a sold out show on Saturday. A celebration of the duo’s latest release, the show transformed the Shrine parking lot into a mini festival with games, food trucks, good vibes, approximately 3000 Hawaiian shirts, balloons, a voter registration booth, and so much love.
Opening the night was Mary Droppinz, who’s set ranged all over the place from House to Techno to Electro to Breakbeat in a glorious flow of unpredictability. Clearly very happy to be opening or Sofi Tukker, Droppinz had the biggest smile on her face throughout the show as she danced her way through the set winning the crowd over with some killer drops, backup dancers, a bit of Barracuda, a little bit of Miami Bass, and Yello sneaking in there a bit at the end. Chick chickaaaaah.
Second up was NY powerhouse duo, and longtime Sofi Tukker collaborators, The Knocks. Playing their signature form of dance music mixing various forms of electronic music with some Disco and Funk and Hip Hop and Rap, JPatt and B-Roc took the party to another level, like they always do, with highlights including “Classic”, “Get Happy”, “No Requests”, and “Slow Song”.
After The Knocks, the dancers from Bob’s Dance Shop exploded onto the stage with a super-fun routine to fire up the crowd. With some intense choreography, incredible dance skills, and hilarious banter it was a perfect fit to lead into the headliners.
Sofi Tukker came out onto a super-cool looking stage where the Wet Tennis theme was very evident. A Sofi vs Tukker tennis scoreboard backdrop dominated a stage flanked with giant purple tennis balls, with a constantly changing tableau of tennis images on the back and sides of the stage. Sophie and Tucker volleyed the vocal duties back and forth through a 17 song set highlighted by everyone’s favourite “Best Friend” (With The Knocks JPatt), “Awoo”, “Purple Hat”, new fav “Wet Tennis”, and encore “Drinkee”.
So much goes on during one of these shows it’s hard to know where to look, there’s Sophie playing guitar, Bob’s dancers going wild, Tucker hitting you with that low, low voice, (And his own fun dance moves) and it all just kind of comes together in a big jumble of energy and joy and positivity. Also, there was the unexpected departure of Sophie from the stage to the middle of the audience for an acoustic solo performance of “Brazillian Soul”, and for the song “Larry Bird” the lyrics were changed to “Kobe Bryant” in tribute to the Lakers great. Overall, Sofi Tukker served an ace set which was a smash that ended with love.
Sofi Tukker last played LA indoors at the Shrine, and their popularity continues to soar as evidenced by them being moved outdoors and having an even bigger crowd. The sky is the limit with this unique electropop duo!
Words and photos by Tim Aarons
