There is nothing I love more than music that doesn’t fit into a tidy little box. And on this late fall Tuesday Night, August Hall presented two very different performers: Nilüfer Yanya and Angélica Garcia, two artists whose only thing they have in common is that I have to look up how to type diacritics to write their names. Oh, and their 2024 albums, My Method Actor and Gemelo, respectively, are works of genius likely to end up on everyone’s EOY lists. And when they came together at August Hall, they presented a thing of beauty.
Angélica Garcia was backed by only a drummer. She came on stage and immediately rolled herself into a ball. As the tribal rhythms kicked in, she moved like a ballerina getting electrocuted, but definitely not in a bad way. Alternating between rapping and singing, almost always in Spanish, she performed with every inch of her body and soul and was literally dripping with set by the end of her set.
Yanya opened her set with the Sonic Youth-esque, gently noisy “Method Actor,” setting the stage for about 90 minutes of pure sonic bliss. Unlike Garcia, Yanya rarely moved or spoke to the audience, letting her music, complex arrangements, and amazing band carry the show. Sax Player Jazzi Bobbi (a great name for a sax player) was the rare sax player who rarely overshadowed the lead singer but instead added interesting and unexpected color to the music.
Yanya’s music is fascinating because it builds tension continuously without ever breaking. The tension stays unresolved, and it’s weird to be made so uncomfortable but something so accessible. “Like I Say (I Runaway)” might be my favorite song of the year because this, and the version at this show, up the intensity while never releasing in a way that both hurt and felt amazing.
When push comes to shove, and someone asks me to describe Yanya’s music, I always say she sounds like what would happen if Sade produced a PJ Harvey record. So when she encored with a cover of Harvey’s “Rid Of Me,” I felt validated. It was a reading of the song exactly as expected—the raw, emotional dynamics of PJ Harvey mixed with the sexy smooth of Sade. It was a great way to close out an amazing, blissful show.
