Caribou @ Mission: ERIC’s Favorite Show Of The Year

Caribou photo courtesy of Merge Records

Ayooo jus’ one month left and 2k24 has already been an electric year for dance music. Charli XCX, Fred again.., ODESZA, John Summit (just to rattle off a few) brought some heater performances this year. The legendary Dan Snaith, aka Caribou, aka Daphni, put together a monster set for his most recent Caribou album: Honey.

First time I’d heard about Dan was on the Tape Notes Podcast: Episode 42 with John Kennedy (S/O John wit’ one of the all time butteriest podcast voices). Dan was actually on the show talking about his 2020 album Suddenly and his general creative process, and I think it’s definitely worth a listen. 

Gotta be honest here, my expectations were pretty low yesterday. I was flying solo cause the squad couldn’t pull up, and Joy Orbison cancelled his opening set—not the greatest of starts. For real the place was dead, I think I was one of seven people holding down the floor. Canary Yellow, a local duo, got things rolling with some funky tech house; and the Aussie, yuné pinku, was incredible—she was up there all alone, singing live vocals and queuing and mixing her own loops off Ableton with her lil Akai MPK. By the end of Yuné’s set, fans had packed out the floor, but not to a degree where it was overcrowded and suffocating; I still had plenty of shoulder space to move. 

Jeans, plain white tee, shoeless, and some dope aviator eyeglasses (legit the same style my grandpa used to wear, God rest his soul); Dan gives off mega chill Dad vibes. But instead of watching football and tinkering in the garage, he whips up wicked sketches in his basement. 

From “Volume” to the hit “Can’t Do Without You”, the arrangement made me feel like a kid in a 1970s smalltown summer. Dan captures this golden-warm, vintage sound that I find unique to the EDM music scene—kinda like dance music off a cassette tape.

Laser and visual aficionados would’ve probably been left wanting more, but I think his simple visual accompaniment was perfect and protected Dan and the three band members from distraction. My favorite segment of the show was [name]’s drum solo towards the end of the show; I love it when artists take a moment to lift their supporting cast into the limelight. 

I’ve been to quite a few shows and this was already stacking up to land in my top 10 list. But what really crowded the night was the crowd there with me. An eclectic collection of young and old without a phone in sight. I found myself jumping arm in arm (word for arms over shoulders) with some absolute lads to the chorus of “Honey”. For once, I really felt as though everyone was there to enjoy Caribou’s work, rather than capture something on their phones. Or maybe that’s where the culture is heading? One of these days I’ll have to keep my phone out to see if I’m missing something.

If you didn’t get see Caribou’s Honey tour, you can get pretty close by watching Caribou’s Boiler Room: Belfast set on YouTube.  It was one of the most unique crowds I’ve ever been a part of.

Tune of the night: Got to Change