Show Review: Capital Cities wsg Gold Fields and Love Life 5/15/13 at The Shelter at Saint Andrews Hall

Funky white boys, Capital Cities, played at Detroit’s The Shelter at Saint Andrews Hall this past Wednesday evening with Gold Fields and Love Life serving as openers. Capital Cities are the brain child of Los Angeles based Ryan Merchant and Sebu Simonian. Capital Cities effortlessly won over the audience with a exciting blend of funk, soul, pop, rock, and dance music.  The band are currently crisscrossing the United States in support of their major label debut, In A Tidal Wave of Mystery, due out June 4 on Capital Records. Their single “Safe and Sound” has become a radio hit and is currently sitting at #3 on the Billboard Alternative Chart. On Wednesday night, Capital Cities played all of the 5 tracks from 2012’s Capital Cities EP including the anthemic “I Sold My Bed, But Not My Stereo” and the funky “Center Stage”. Due to the fact that they only have a 5 track EP out as of now, they threw in a few familiar cover songs too. Capital Cities graced the crowd with covers of The Bee Gees “Stayin’ Alive”, Madonna’s “Holiday” and Sinead O’Connor’ s “Nothing Compares 2U.” Capital Cities ended the evening’s show with the Cash Cash remix of “Safe and Sound”, during which all 5 band members made their way through the audience to dance through the crowd.

Capital Cities have a whole bunch of on-stage antics that make them unique, from choreographed dancing during certain songs, to matching old school racing jackets, to the funked out trumpet playing of Spencer Ludwig, and  their witty banter with the audience. They performed one song complete with a choreographed line dance for the audience, soliciting the crowd to dance to the Capital Cities Shuffle (it goes something like right, clap, left, clap, spin and try not to hurt yourself.) Wednesday nights set also included the Siriusxm favorite “Kangaroo Court” and a whole bunch of new material from their upcoming debut. Capital Cities will next be in Detroit in August for the Mo Pop Festival at Freedom Hill Amphitheatre.  

Opener’s, Australia’s Gold Fields, are on their way to big things. Their blend of new wave, cow bell and electro-rock really got the crowd moving. They played tracks from their debut album, Black Sun, including “Dark Again” and “Happy Boy”. I would compare them to New Order, The Rapture, or other synth and percussion heavy bands. There was certainly no lack of dance-inspired beats during their quick, yet satisfying set. The sets highlight for me was their cover of Underworld’s “Born Slippy”, made popular from the 1996 film Trainspotting.