Finding yourself at the end of your tour in New Orleans could make for a wickedly bad conclusion. Friday night’s Sylvan Esso—What Now Tour ended in New Orleans at the Civic Theatre. The last time the band was in town was at Tipitina’s back in 2015, on their self-titled debut tour.
Sylvan Esso, the American electro-pop duo from Durham, North Carolina, formed in 2013. Consisting of singer Amelia Meath and producer Nick Sanborn, the band has managed to stay focused and push aside the stereotypes and stigmas in order to build a solid reputation for putting on a fun-packed and thrilling show.
To compare the two tours would be a bit naïve, but both shows focused on the band's current release and had amazing light shows. Tipitina’s lighting pallet was built on taking it up to the next level for the What Now Tour. The simplistic lighting rig had some serious upgrades at times during the Civic show, which came across as the third member of the band. The set, as expected, did have a few more songs from What Now, but was closely balanced with the self-titled material as well. The crowd banter was light at best, which kept the band on track. They only took a break now and again to praise the city or remind themselves that this was the last show of the tour.
Friday night’s show was a great launching point into Decadence weekend. It sold out rather quickly, and had me wondering what the hype was all about. The Tipitina’s show didn’t even come across my radar till a few days after it was already past, when people started asking me if I had gone. That moment is what ended up bringing me to the Civic.
