Goldfrapp Lights Up Brooklyn Steel With New Music, Classics and Witty Banter

Robert Paul Cohen

Kicking off the first of two nights at Brooklyn Steel in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Goldfrapp took the stage without much fuss and got right to it. The warehouse of a venue was a perfect showcase for a group who could just as well be a performance art experiment at P.S. 1. A backlit wall and pounding rhythms set the tone for the night, each song seeming to have its own designated color of bright flashing glow.

For all the experimental persona of the band, lead singer Alison Goldfrapp kept her pre/post-song banter incredibly close to ground-level and had a friendly way of knocking the guy in the crowd who filmed them with his iPad. “Hey, that’s a really big camera phone there,” she pointed out. “What’d you bring, your homework?” Letting it go for the time being, the band launched into “Lovely Head” and the crowd went along with them on the ethereal journey of what could be the soundtrack to a James Bond film, if it were directed by Sophia Coppola. A little later, Alison acknowledged her friend once again: “I guess the guy’s still doing his homework.” But that was the last of that, and in the reality of modern concert-going, in which we are all used to a screen of some sort being in front of our face at one point or other, these couple of moments were but entertaining blips in the night’s journey.

Adorned in bright, silver leather, hair in her face, Miss Goldfrapp was on the same ride as the rest of us, swaying and dancing to familiar tracks like, “Ocean” and “Systematic.” The night was capped off with a powerful encore, culminating with Epic hits, “Ooh La La” and “Strict Machine.”

Though the band spent most of the set huddled in the shadows between the light, their presence was felt throughout. Goldfrapp brings power with them and the musicianship, while not always acknowledged in many electronic bands, was solid and stalwart.

If you’re a fan of Goldfrapp and haven’t seen them live, go. You’ll get exactly what you were hoping for. If you’re less familiar with Goldfrapp, you should go too. They set a mood that even someone unfamiliar with their music will be able to feel. Just be sure to leave your homework at home. Your iPad too.

Goldfrapp performed at Brooklyn Steel in Brooklyn, NY on April 26.