Escort @ Southpaw, February 29th, 2008

Escort is without a doubt, hands down, my favorite band out right now. An 18-piece band that includes a full horn section, strings, two drummers, three background singers, guitars, keyboards, and the AMAZING Zena Kitt on lead vocals. Although they don't exactly have an album out, they've got several singles available on vinyl, all of them amazing, and all of them worth picking up. I've seen Escort a couple of times now, and each show has been completely different. The new songs they keep premiering are top-rate dance songs, bursting at the seams with energy, soul, and the spirit of Brooklyn. I wouldn't be surprised if their first album ended up being a live recording, because that is how flawless they come off on stage. It was highly nostalgic, but so very progressive, as the crowd varied from the neighborhood Park Slope hipsters, to the urban couples, to the disco-enthusiasts like myself that just wanted to dance to what Escort was giving us.



Opening the show at Southpaw was T.H. White with guest vocals by Meghan Wolf, who was pretty effing dope. They played very smoothed out, downtempo stuff, very similar to Sade, actually. Whatever, they did a great job of warming the crowd up for Escort, and I bought both of their CD's, so they must've been doing something right. Next thing you know, at around 11:30, Escort hit the stage! It was really great watching them pile onto the tiny stage and take charge the way they did, launching right into a high-energy version of their first single, "Starlight". I glanced around and literally everyone in the front 3 rows of people were dancing. And dancing hard. People sang along, hollering and snapping, basically getting into it like they were seeing Chic at Studio 54 or something. They premiered two new cuts, "Turn it Back" and "Can't Fake the Feeling", both of which were first-rate cuts just begging to be played on repeat. Their cover choice proved to be top-rate once again as they broke down Belle Epoque's "Miss Broadway" and Gino's "Dancer" into a full on attack of percussion and sass on the dancefloor. They rounded out the set with a recap of their three other singles, "Love in Indigo", "A Bright New Life", and closed it on out with "All Through the Night", which Zena dedicated to "the freaks in the house", which was totally appropriate in this case. The set was way too short, but I can't blame them, seeing as they don't even have an album out. Highly recommended to anyone who wants to dance and see the finest musicians out there doing their thing!


Setlist:

Starlight
Turn it Back
Love in Indigo
Miss Broadway
Can't Fake the Feeling
Dancer
Get On Up
A Bright New Life
All Through the Night

(Photos courtesy of Escort's MySpace, and Flickr.)