Santogold, Virgin Megastore in Union Square, NYC. April 29, 2008.
In my mind, I’m picturing Almack’s writer, Lauren Mooney, at the Santogold instore wearing American Apparel gold spandax pants and a hypercolor tshirt from 1987… plus neon green wayfarers. But she probably wore black and she probably didn’t go just so she could see if Ashlee Simpson was there, like I would’ve. “Outta My Head” is fucking awesome. She made that. Santogold, not Ashlee and not Lauren. Read her review of the instore:
I have to admit I had no idea who Santogold was until recently — and the last in-store I attended at Virgin Union Square was Sia, which was way more tame than this shit.
First off there was no line around the block for Sia.
Santogold could be a study in the mashing up of musical genres and might be the new it-girl for pop music lovers who want more art and less Miley Cyrus.
You could feel the anticipation buzzing as the crowd waited for an explosion of MIA proportions. Santogold emerged covered in neon spandex and wearing ghetto gold hoop earrings and a huge gold ring.
The DJ behind her was DJ Martelo and it was revealed that this was his first trip to NYC — and it should be noted that he was wearing a Rambo T-shirt — oh how American of the Brit.
Unfortunately I found myself distracted by the creepy old guy who seemed to be staring at me. He took short breaks only to stare at the back-up singer/dancer girls on either side of Santi dressed in matching frilly white tops with matching 80s shades.
The girl’s statuesque faces only moved when they were singing along. And their tightly choreographed dance moves were pretty epic. At one point they even busted out hot pink tambourines.
The best part was how much Santogold seemed to be enjoying herself — at one point she started to cry and said something about how important this day was and how happy she was that so many people showed up. I just wish that more than three people were actually dancing — but then again there is no bar in the record store.
If this was a sampling of what is to come from Santogold, we can expect extraordinary things, especially when there is alcohol involved.
See you at the dance party!
Here are some photos from the instore:
