CONCERT REVIEW: ELOHIM AT THE SINCLAIR, CAMBRIDGE, MA: 10/11/16

This past Tuesday night, October 11th, 2016, I was fortunate to catch the young woman who calls herself Elohim live. The mysterious singer/songwriter/electronic musician is currently out on tour with EDEN, but I’d had insomnia the night before and was too tired to stay and check out his set. I was admittedly unfamiliar with his music anyway, whereas I was excited about seeing Elohim live for weeks.

When we arrived at the venue there was a notice on the door that strobe lights, or lights like strobe lights, would be in use at the show. I figured they were referring to EDEN’s live show, as from what I know about him he’s an EDMer. Well, I can’t say whether or not he did use such lighting during his set, but Elohim had a sizable video screen behind her that displayed countless flashing images as she worked her way through her set. Some of these images were funny, others scary and others sexy. Bursts of colors, odd shapes, outlines of people, etc. There were so many of them, and they went by so fast, that I can’t tell you more about what was shown aside from the fact that there was a sexy segment that showed a woman’s boob. I found myself wondering if she had more, shall we say, adult images that she uses at 18+ shows. This show was all ages. I saw one group of kids who couldn’t have been older than 11. There must have been at least 5 of them. They didn’t appear to be accompanied by an adult either, oddly enough. I imagine someone’s big brother must have bought them the tickets and brought them, but even at an all ages club show you don’t usually see kids that young. But since they were allowed, and Elohim must have known kids could be present, one wonders if she tamed down the images accordingly.

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Elohim is the name for God in the Hebrew Bible, something I’d only found out the day of the show, which I found amusing. I mean, I suppose you could suggest that she has a God complex, going by that name, but I don’t think that’s the way she works. I think it’s largely to be funny, as you could argue that her whole image is meant to be funny. Early on, she was always pictured wearing a mask, usually of a sheep, in all of her photos. Nowadays, she tends to have her hair in her face. At her show in Boston, she wore big sunglasses to conceal her identity. Adding to the mystique, she used a programmed, electronic voice to “speak” to the audience during her 45 minute set. She sang live, along with some programmed backing vocals at times, but she didn’t speak to the audience live. Everything she “said” was programmed. Such as her “Black and Blue (Interlude),” which ends with a Siri-like voice saying “Do you have anxiety? I have anxiety.”

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In terms of her set-list, I believe she did every song and interlude that is included on her terrific self-titled EP, though some songs seemed to be lengthened with new breaks, extra loud bursts of drums played on a keyboard. In terms of her gear, she had three keyboard-looking things but one must have been a sampler or sequencer or something. I definitely saw her playing drums with one of them. She also had a laptop computer, but from where I was during most of the show, I didn’t see her doing anything with that; it probably just played programmed backing tracks and the video footage that ran throughout her entire set. In any case, her fingers were constantly moving about on these instruments/devices throughout her set, even when she was singing songs like “Sensations,” “She talks to Much” and “All That Gold,” my three favorites from the set. She also added a cover of “Flagpole Sitta” by Harvey Danger, but you probably know the song from Blink-182 and Green Day’s cover versions under the title “I’m Not Sick, But I’m Not Well.” Her version was dark and anxious and perfect. But then her whole set was perfect. I can’t wait for her to put out more music and come back to Boston, hopefully headlining next time.

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