“We were looking forward to this show the most,” said Santigold, nee Santi White, to the sold-out crowd at Terminal 5. “No city in the world does it like New York!”
The 32-year-old singer graced the stage on Tuesday night (June 9) with openers and frequent collaborators Spank Rock and Amanda Blank and crunk-rock band Trouble Andrew. Trouble Andrew played a set of electro-punk dance music backed by its mascot, a man dressed in a black security shirt, a skull-head and glow-in-the-dark sunglasses. Blank, a hipster rapper known for her sexually explicit lyrics, hit the stage in black pants with her legs individually bound by Christmas lights. Despite sound difficulties, she dropped a number of hip-grinding rhymes, including those on her first single, “Might Like You Better.”
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Wearing a gold and black-zebra print suit, the highly anticipated Santigold opened her set with “Hold the Line,” the first single on the new album by Major Lazer (producers Switch and Diplo), “Guns Don’t Kill People…Lazers Do.” A beer-flinging, hair-pulling fight broke out in the audience after that song but the singer was undaunted, moving into many of the tracks from her self-titled debut album like the well-received “L.E.S. Artistes.”
The combination of Santigold’s band, DJ’s and synchronized backup dancers made for an energetic performance, as one would expect from a singer who proudly proclaims, “Me, I’m a creator / Thrill is to make it up / The rules I break got me a place up on your radar.” Her audience reacted accordingly; after a rendition of “Anne” complete with eerie howling, Santigold paused in amazement at a fan holding up his iPhone with the phrase “sANNE tigold” scrolling across the screen.
“Brooklyn (Go Hard),” a Jay-Z song that samples Santigold’s “Shove It,” seamlessly transitioned into its predecessor while the original version of “I’m A Lady” featuring Trouble Andrew was merged with Blank’s remix. Blank returned to the stage for the number sans electric pants, claiming, “I had to take them off before I set my legs on fire!”
Before the end of the night, Santigold tried her hand at The Cure’s “Killing an Arab” and invited several fans to dance onstage for one of her biggest hits, “Creator.” For her encore, Santigold sang “Starstruck” and “B.O.O.T.A.Y.” with Amanda Blank and Spank Rock in tow.
Here is Santigold’s setlist:
“Hold the Line”
“You’ll Find a Way” (Switch & Graeme Remix)
“L.E.S. Artistes”
“Say Aha”
“Lights Out”
“Anne”
“Brooklyn Go Hard”
“Shove It”
“Get It Up”
“Unstoppable”
“My Superman”
“I’m a Lady” (Amanda Blank version)
“I’m a Lady”
“Killing an Arab”
“Creator”
Encore:
“Starstruck”
“B.O.O.T.A.Y.”