Author: Crossfire

Old Blue Last, London
12/5/08

Photos: Louise Roberts

Ms. Santi White, or as most know her, Santogold, took to the sweaty stage in style on Monday night, turning up fashionably late with an equally fashionable gold jacket and Kiss tshirt on. No-one cared that they’d been waiting an hour longer than they expected and the support band hadn’t even turned up. The weather was so nice that it felt like an indoor festival so spirits were high.

Who are we kidding? It was fucking hot in the Old Blue Last and you know it. Santogold knew it as well; “You guys need air-conditioning, woo!” Known for it’s rowdy sweaty gigs, this was sure to be one of them as Santo ran through the collection of songs from her self-titled debut album. I guarantee you have heard every last one of these songs, even if you don’t own the album, as her mix of accessible jungle-dub-pop has been used all over the place since the end of last year.

Tracks like “Creator” have already infused into your brain from hair product adverts, and got one of the best reactions of the night. Painfully catchy latest single “LES Artistes” is the one that you’ve been singing for the past 4 months now, whistling on your way to work, in the shower, humming as you fall asleep, then singing when you go to work the next day, whilst Abjekt tells you he was into her before the hype. It’s true, I’ll give him that.

Back to the gig, and amongst the sweaty punters throwing pointed hands in the air were some of the music elite. Ricky ‘Kaiser’ Wilson was stood at the back peering over the crowd as the neon and gold singer whipped up the audience into some sort of tribal dance. Alongside him was super-producer and Santo collaborator Mark Ronson, who had her featured on his Version album. They both enjoyed it, so did the rest of people there.

With a ‘one to watch’ label stamped on her for 2008, including this night’s host of events Levis, it does strike me as odd. We all know we should be watching Santogold, we’ve known this for ages and this is why we spent the best part of 2 weeks trying to get hold of tickets for tonight. Although she was good tonight, very good, and will certainly be a soundtrack of the summer, I didn’t feel like this was her best performance. Maybe the heat was too much and that’s understandable, but I’d definitely recommend seeing her in a proper venue to get the best from that voice. And you might even have a bit more room to dance around like you know you should.

Moose.