On Thursday, April 17th, French producer duo Polo & Pan landed at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. To be explicit, we mean that in the same we would a spacecraft. While Polo & Pan are known for their tropical sound, this show offered an otherworldly, galactic experience.
Polo & Pan are fresh off the release of their fourth studio album, 22:22. The album is full of lyrical references to the stars, moon, and rocket ships, but it also relies on space-age instrumentation via retro electronic instruments like theremins and vocoders. All this, combined with their crisp white stage design and dazzling lighting production, created a transportive experience at Red Rocks.
A Francophone Affair
Opening the stage for Polo & Pan was another French duo: Kids Return. Although they just formed in 2021, they have already received a strong endorsement from their fellow countrymen.
In addition to bringing Kids Return on their European tour, Polo & Pan featured the band on their new track “Bluetopia.” Kids Return recently released their sophomore album, 1997. They used this Red Rocks set to showcase these tracks and their lush indie-pop sound.
Polo & Pan at Red Rocks
Polo & Pan is a joint endeavor between French electronic musicians Polocorp (real name Paul Armand-Delille) and Peter Pan (real name Alexandre Grynszpan). This April, they kicked off a short North American tour consisting of two weekends at Coachella, a Mexico City stop, and a Red Rocks performance.
This Red Rocks show was their second time at the legendary outdoor venue. While their previous 2022 play focused on the tropical rhythms of their Cyclorama album, this set explored the new aesthetics of 22:22. They played nearly every track from the album, showing off its subdued house and disco beats with a larger emphasis on live vocals.
Sticking true to the 22:22 tracklist, the set opened with the album’s opener, “The Piano & The Violin.” The song, a spoken-word vocal number, talks about a lonely, anthropomorphized piano who finally meets his match in a violin. “From the second they met / They became a duet.” These lyrics served as the perfect cue for the duo to walk out and reveal their stage design.
The centerpiece of the stage was a custom white console table with built-in synthesizers and drum machines at various stations, allowing the two members to travel around the setup. Coordinating with the white decor, Polo & Pan came out in matching white suits. Between the custom synthesizers and matching outfits, it seems they took some inspiration from early electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk.
22:22 Live
Before delving into their new material, Polo & Pan played one of their fan favorites, “Magic,” which covers the ’70s hit of the same name by Pilot. This euphoric number got the crowd dancing before they moved into “Pareidolies,” a track about a lonely traveler on a foreign planet.
Then came the entrance of their guest vocalist Victoria Lafaurie during “Nenuphar” featuring I.M YONI. Lafaurie appeared throughout the show, impressively singing in three different languages over the course of the night.
While Polo & Pan were faithful to the new album, they also tricked out the tracks with plenty of live edits. At times, they indulged in drawn-out psychedelic rhythms played live on a drum machine, all while the central lighting fixture (a hanging beam of light) tilted and turned above the stage.
Polo & Pan also had another surprise guest from the album. PawPaw Rod, an American singer, performed his vocals for “A Different Side of Us,” donning a ’70s-inspired outfit also in white.
This Red Rocks performance proved that Polo & Pan have a cohesive vision for their new direction on 22:22. And that vision is strongly rooted in retrofuturism.
Sonically, they use electronic instruments developed in the first half of the 20th century and transport them to a contemporary context. Beyond their use of vocoders (especially notable in their live performance of “The Mirror”), the album even includes a theremin feature from the great-grandson of the instrument’s inventor. Aesthetically, their stage design and clean looks feel like they’re straight out of the early decades of the space age.
Encore from Polo & Pan
By the end of the night, Polo & Pan had fully transported the audience to the stars and beyond. But when it came to the encore, they took us back to the beach with some of their biggest tropical-leaning hits like “Canopée” and “Nanã.” They closed the show with the warm and groovy “Ani Kuni.” This track had the whole crowd singing along just as snow began to fall over Morrison.
Overall, Polo & Pan’s Red Rocks set showed the transformative power of their music. Whether it be to a sunny beach or to a cold moonscape, Polo & Pan are taking us somewhere far away — and we’ll be dancing the entire way there.
Photos by Angela Karami
