Photos and review by NOTES FROM VIVACE
LOS ANGELES – In support of their 2024 “Gangbusters Melody Club” album release, Caravan Palace dropped by Los Angeles’ The Novo as part of their 24 date North American tour. The band was raring to go, starting their set 10 minutes earlier than scheduled. That just meant that the standing room general admission crowd started dancing earlier than anticipated. The night was a celebration of French art jazz culture crossing the pond and causing a frenzied reception.
Highlights included “Raccoons” that had the crowd sing “S’il vous plait! S’il vous plait!” Or maybe the American audience was singing back “Celebrate! Celebrate!” It didn’t matter, because everyone was having too much fun. Everytime lead vocalist Zoé Colotis put her left hand to her ear, the crowd responded by singing along with her. Now dancing was mandatory throughout the set, but the crowd especially responded to “Miracle.” Fans danced with arms raised while the band danced in rhythm. “City Cook” got the bartenders dancing. Just before launching their tour, the band released a music video for the song, which reminds one of the French Sci Fi animation classic Fantastic Planet. Meanwhile to continue this movie theme, “Russian” had a fun Leslie Caron, French adjacent, Lili vibe.
“Fool” started off with vocal tracks while the band hit the horn sections. The song slowed it down, which resulted in Colotis asking, “Did you sleep a little bit?” The question got a loud “NO!” in response. “Nap time? You didn’t? Because you were happy kids with a lot of energy?” “YES!” With the crowd wide awake, the band asked the crowd to bounce to the jazz tune “Rock It for Me.” The final song of the night (prior to the three encores) was “Brotherswing.” With rapid fire lyrics, the song took dramatic license of painted images of dancing through the City of Lights in the middle of the night.
With a “Thanks you for warming our hearts,” the band left the stage to catch their breath before returning for a three song encore. The highlight was the enjoyable “Je m’amuse” that was introduced with, “Here comes the clubbing moment. Let’s get wild. Are you ready for this? Let’s try to reach the ceiling!” There were definitely attempts to do so by the vast majority of the crowd. The band ended the night by taking a couple bows while saying with gratitude, “Thanks LA. Keep bouncing.”
Opening up the night was fellow French citizen ZAYKA. He came up on stage, playing the trombone before genre-mixing with a trio of songs. He started it off with the atmospheric “Fracture” before shifting to the EDM beats of “Universe ZAYKA Club Edition” and then closing out the trio with the salsa tune “La Vengenza – ZAYKA remix.” He called his song “Bisous Câlins” his love song that scratched its way to head shakes and arms stretched wide. Other than his trombone, he had a pair of electronic gear that he had tilted towards the audience so that all could witness his synth-electro skills. He ended the set by asking, “So you want to jump one more time with me, LA!” People were more than happy to get in some early bouncing.
Caravan Palace setlist: Clash, Dragons, Wonderland, Reverse, Raccoons, Black Betty (Lead Belly cover), Midnight, Miracle, City Cook, Moonshine, Russian, Tattoos, Aftermath, MAD, 81 Special, About You, Mirrors, Fool, Rock It for Me, Lone Digger, Mighty, Brotherswing. Encores: Comics, Je m’amuse, Jolie Coquine.
ZAYKA setlist: Fracture, Universe ZAYKA Club Edition, La Vengenza – ZAYKA remix, Bisous Câlins, Josephine – ZAYKA remix, Attention Jacques.
