Laetitia Sadier may always remain best known as the voice of Stereolab, but with that band on indefinite hiatus, the French singer and multi-instrumentalist has taken strides to forge an identity as a solo artist. At DC9 on Tuesday night, the Stereolab songbook was left on the shelf, as Sadier showcased her own burgeoning oeuvre, delighting a devoted audience with an hour-long set of politically-tinged, cosmopolitan indie-pop.
Greeting the crowd warmly upon taking the stage, Sadier strummed a Gibson SG and unfurled her unmistakably velveteen alto on the Jean Renoir-inspired “The Rule of the Game,” kicking off the set on a ethereal, meditative note until she and her two-piece backing band locked into a jaunty, up-tempo groove during the song’s instrumental coda. With their bouncy rhythms and bubblegum melodies, “Next Time You See Me” and “Find Me the Pulse of the Universe” sounded like late-period Stereolab outtakes, but much more stripped-down and straightforward, distilling some of Sadier’s trademark aesthetics to their pop core.
Although her second proper solo album, Silencio, is one of the most overtly politicized indie records of the year, Tuesday’s show hardly felt heavy-handed in tone. Sadier kept the mood light, eschewing the opportunity to use a stage in the American capital as a pulpit for her well-documented Marxian leanings. Indeed, most of the songs were catchy enough that it was entirely possible to tune out their ideological content, even during the sloganeering “Ausculation to the Nation,” during which Sadier sang “Rating agencies, financial markets, and the G20 were not elected by the people. In the name of what are we letting them govern our lives? They are politically illegitimate.” Sadier even partially disclaimed the words, noting that they were based on a call-in rant she heard on French radio. Ultimately, the only political banter of the evening came from openers Orca Team, whose frontman quipped between songs, “It’s nice to be here in DC. Sorry you don’t have representation.”
In addition to eight songs from Silencio and one from her 2010 solo debut, The Trip, Sadier also played several songs by her former band Monade, which started as a Stereolab side-project before developing into an excellent band in its own right. “Wash and Dance” (from the 2005 LP A Few Steps More) was particularly stellar, arguably the evening’s best song and probably the one that got the most spirited audience response, at least until the encore. Sadier delivered stirring vocal melodies, singing in French, and although the recorded version’s spiraling keyboard lines were definitely missed (Monade was a four-piece), the song built up irresistible, almost danceable momentum, propelled by James Elkington’s samba-inflected beats, Julian Gasc’s pulsing bass line, and Sadier’s percussive guitar chords.
Sadier closed her main set with “Lightning Thunderbolt” (which she dedicated to her boyfriend, who had apparently just flown in for the show), before applause coaxed her back for a two-song encore which began with the gorgeously plaintive “Statues Can Bend,” culminating with Monade’s “Etoile,” the drone-pop coda of which capped off the evening with a crowd-pleasing flourish.
