By Karina Kristensen //
Maribou State with Sea Moya //
The Regency Ballroom – San Francisco
October 16th, 2019 //
On a Wednesday evening in SF, a packed crowd at The Regency Ballroom showered English electronic act Maribou State with love. The duo that consists of Chris Davids and Liam Ivory received quite the reception for a mid-week performance.
While Maribou State released their debut album Portraits in 2015, this tour was specifically in support of their sophomore LP Kingdoms in Colour, which dropped more than a year ago now and features long-standing collaborator Holly Walker on the tracks “Nervous Tics” and “Slow Heat” as well as Texas-based three-piece Khruangbin on “Feel Good” (and yes, it does).
Serving as support was Sea Moya, a kraut-beat combo that energized us with their German-styled aesthetic. Their music was the good kind of weird — the different, yet perfect fun for warming up a crowd.
When Sea Moya concluded, the lights illuminated the crowd that had subtly grown to fill the space and continued to show the sea of bodies getting denser toward the front of the stage as Davids and Ivory began.
Joining Maribou State for much of their set was London-born multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Obi Franky, whose vocals sounded nothing short of incredible and fit perfectly with the feelings you get while listening to Davids’ and Ivory’s music. Past the midway point of the show, she returned to perform “Midas” off Portraits on a stage that radiated pink and we couldn’t have been happier to see Franky do her thing again.
When Maribou State walked off stage for their encore break, it was almost as if the crowd immediately expected an encore. But no one left until they came back out and performed “Turnmills” from Kingdoms in Colour in honor of the London club that closed in 2008. We really couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend a fall night in The City by the Bay.
Setlist:
Feel Good
Nervous Tics
Steal
Glasshouses
Wallflower
Kingdom
Beginner’s Luck
Vale
Midas
November Nights
Rituals
The Clown
Kama
Encore:
Turnmills