KYGO @ The Greek Theatre
Attending a Kygo concert is the equivalent of earning 1,000,000 frequent flyer miles. Saturday night, I flew first class on Aegean Air to the Parthenon on the Acropolis of Athens, Greece. By flying first class to Greece I mean I ordered an Uber Select to The Greek Theatre in Los Feliz. That said, similar to real Greek temples built to house deity statues, one might agree after this weekend's performance that Kygo is a musical God whose omniscience, omnipotence and omnibenevolence was confirmed along with the faith of his committed fans.
Speaking of divine simplicity, hat tip to the producer behind the visual projections. I think it's fair to wonder what the experience of a DJ show at an amphitheater will be like. It's a question that was answered with the power of a hundred Hilary Clinton hair flips right from the get-go. Kygo may often be found behind a MIDI keyboard controller, but the Norwegian producer is a trained pianist and proved so by flexing his skills behind a giant scrim filled to the edges of transporting visuals. Again, more flyer miles earned traveling across tropical landscapes to ones out of this world, literally, reaching Gravity-inspired levels to the eventual unveiling of Kygo and another passport stamp.
The hits ensued from "Younger" to "Stole The Show" which featured a cameo by singer Parson James, met by one of the hottest pop-culture turn-ons otherwise known as Marvin Gaye's "Sexual Healing" performed by none other than John Legend, all sonically overhauled with Kygo's signature zing. Future hits also ensued like "I'm In Love" that had no trouble wrapping all its sound properties around my eardrums's transmission and flooring the pedal.
Encore already? I was just starting to accept Kygo's backwards hat and the couple in front of me their seemingly twenty foot long joint. Between wondering whether Kygo feels guilty about having luxurious locks and for not donating them, to wondering whether my contact high was the reason I was questioning it in the first place, I apparently had no concept of time because almost without warning Kygo was gone and it was like waking up to the last morning of vacation with a return flight just hours away and still unpacked.
Before the house lights lit up and the venue emptied and security had to drag to the exit forcing me to leave, Kygo and friends went out with a bang. By friends I'm referring to not only Australian singer Conrad Sewell, the vocalist featured in Kygo's first original song "Firestone," but also a full string section complete with conductor to accompany an acoustic-to-full-throttle version of the song which arguably is one of Kygo's best performances to date.