I love to dance. I think there is no better way to feel music within you except for letting it take over in a way that makes you dance. Not all music can do that; it can be loud, fun and hip but, sometimes, no amount of bass in it will prompt you to really move.
I don’t believe people when they tell me they don’t know how to dance. They either aren’t feeling their music, they’ve never felt their music or they have just been trying to dance to the wrong music all this time. It’s when you feel the music in your bones, and your mind goes quiet because all you can hear is the music: that’s when your body feels the rhythm, every single beat of that music, and begins to move with it in harmony. It’s almost like reading and complementing the wavelengths back to its source. It’s sound in motion. This is what Clean Bandit accomplished Saturday at the Majestic Theatre.
Electronic dance music has a certain reputation, not only in terms of what the concerts are like, but also the kind of crowd that frequents those concerts. So even though I was familiar with the band’s music, and that it is extremely fun to dance to, I had my reservations about their live performing abilities.
Even though one of the band members had to sit out the concert due to an injury, the remaining three with their guest vocalist more than compensated by bringing the house down. As visually appealing to watch as they were to hear, Grace Chatto danced the night away with the rest of us, all while mastering the cello in front of her. Her classical solos within their songs were what gave pause to the entire mass, with everyone just holding still for the moments her fingers and bow flew on the instrument in a masterful blur. That, perhaps, was the moment I looked back and laughed at all the articles I had perused which ridiculed the mere concept of classical music meeting electronic.
With a packed venue, there were as many students as older adults there, and a hefty line waiting to get into the theater. Chatto knew how to engage her crowd by exclaiming, “Go Badgers!” and sweetly asking us to chant Neil’s name in a video so he could feel some of the love from the crowd he was missing. The band cleverly waited until the encore to play their well loved song, “Rather Be (feat. Jess Glynne),” something that almost made the crowd explode with excitement. The tired Badgers were infused with one last shot of adrenaline to dance one more time with them. Although the level of energy remained high for their entire set, “Real Love,” “Extraordinary (feat. Sharna Bass),” and “Show Me Love (feat. Elisabeth Troy)” were the clear favorites, with an almost palpable vibe in the air. The band also whipped out a new song, “Superstar,” written in collaboration with Andrew Martin. Even though the song had a slightly different feel to it than their signature house now, the more hip-hop sounds of it quite obviously won the crowd over.
Let’s face it, Madison has been getting its fair share of impressive concerts for quite a while now. These are usually up-and-coming bands that are either not terribly well known, but are making great music nonetheless, or others slightly more well-known ones that recently have accumulated fame. However, it took seeing Clean Bandit to come to the conclusion that Madison does not get enough bands that’ll make a venue dance all night long.
