Concert Review: Ultra Sunn light up the night at their first LA show
By: Audrey Sliger
In support of their new album “US,” Belgian Coldwave duo Ultra Sunn (Gaelle Souflet and Sam Huge), played at Catch One for their second night on tour – and their first ever live appearance in Los Angeles. Their performance was the final show of an eight-artist lineup at the one-year anniversary party for Club Flesh, an event created by LA-based club promoter Electric Eye with the intention to establish a judgment-free space of acceptance and inclusivity in the goth and punk scenes. All this to say: by the time Ultra Sunn and their collaborator Alexis opened their set, it was midnight – and this crowd had already been dancing for nearly six hours.
As I entered the venue and ascended the staircase, I could already hear music pouring from the Disco Room (aptly named considering the giant disco ball spinning from the center of the ceiling), where Ultra Sunn had just taken the stage. Hundreds of concertgoers dressed in black pressed toward the front, rare pops of color peeking through in the form of neon hair dye. A sea of Doc Marten boots bounced on the sticky floor, vibrating with bass as the space filled with Gaelle’s sweeping synths and Sam’s dominating vocals – both of which, may I add, sound just as larger-than-life and effortless in person as they do on Ultra Sunn’s records. Flashing lights in shades of blue, red, and white illuminated the crowd through the fog, swinging around the room erratically as if they, too, were dancing.
Ultra Sunn’s sound is certainly reminiscent of late-80s Darkwave (with many drawing comparison between the similarly commanding vocals of Sam and Depeche Mode’s lead singer Dave Gahan), but they’re also distinctly modern. They blend light and dark effortlessly, with severe and dusky synths and basslines carrying markedly positive lyricism, where Gaelle and Sam preach a message of recovery, of excitement, of a better world ahead.
Their set opened with “Young Foxes,” a palpably bouncy track that set a lively tone for the show as Gaelle, Sam, and Alexis jumped with the crowd. As they found their groove, the band led the audience in an otherworldly chant of the question, “Can you believe it?” after their song of the same title. At one point, Sam took a large paper fan from a front-row concertgoer, dancing around the stage and fanning himself theatrically before returning it with an almost-shy smile. “You and Me”, despite its punishing beat, created a ruminative atmosphere between Ultra Sunn and their fans as Sam’s voice repeatedly professed, “In all what you do, there is just me and you.” After each song, Sam addressed the crowd briefly with a warm and booming “Thank you!”, grasping a few hands before spinning smoothly into the next.
Perhaps the clearest example of the band’s ability to blend juxtaposing elements, “Shake Your Demons” swung back and forth between an almost sinister energetic rhythm and a vast cinematic break. During the song’s softer spaces, the band seemed to take reflective moments to observe the crowd, artist and fan taking in one another’s energy in a mutual exchange. The crowd settled as couples swayed along to the magical, glimmering synths of instrumental track “The House”. As the band left the stage, fans eagerly cheered for an encore. Of course, Ultra Sunn delivered, returning to perform “Keep Your Eyes Peeled” – their viral first track that spread like wildfire across the internet last year. Never mind the fact that by then, it was nearly one o’clock in the morning (and if you’re keeping track, we were going on seven hours of dancing) – the crowd came to life as if the show had just begun.
As I stepped outside into the cool nighttime air after the show had come to a close, surrounded by swaths of concertgoers sharing smokes and buying hot dogs from sidewalk vendors, I found myself already wishing I could re-enter the world Ultra Sunn created in the Disco Room. In an interview with Reflections of Darkness last year, Gaelle and Sam remarked that their goal as artists has always been to create safe places where people can freely express themselves, and that they feel that their fans have understood and accepted this philosophy. My experience at this show leads me to believe that they have succeeded. I, quite possibly, have never attended a show with a more pleasant crowd. Though, of course, energy was high and fans were dancing without abandon, there was a remarkable lack of aggression and pushiness among the audience. People moved aside freely to let one another pass, frequently stepping back to allow shorter concertgoers to get a better view of the stage. At one point in the show, I witnessed several people break from the crowd, using their phone flashlights to help a stranger search for a missing item on the floor.
The experience brought to mind many debates I’ve heard among friends and colleagues as of late about whether ‘concert etiquette’ (that almost family-like feeling of togetherness and mutual respect between fans and artists brought on by sharing the experience of live music) is being lost among younger generations. I’ve seen many shows that would support that theory – but not this one. Ultra Sunn has a lot to be proud of since their debut just four years ago, but their ability to foster such a unique energy of oneness among their audience must fall near the top of the list – and they’re just getting started.