Dragonette Gets The Crowd Movin’ At The Hollywood Theatre.

If you were to stand outside the Hollywood Theatre tonight on the sleepy Broadway street it resides, you’d never know that a dance party was raging inside. When I walked in to the Theatre, at 8:45, the DJ up on stage was pumping up the crowd, who danced collectively to the beat. Some watching the stage, others talking to their friends, their feet never stopping. In a mere fifteen minutes Dragonette took the stage, and the feet just kept moving. 

I’ve been to many shows, and I’ve got to say that, while crowds move and bop their heads. This crowd was movin’. Truly dancing the night away. The crowd itself consisted with what I would say were twenty-somethings and forty-somethings, and not many other age groups. Each and everyone grooving to the music. 

Dragonette, who started as a band, but has become the solo stage moniker for singer Martina Sorbara; shimmied, shaked, and boogied almost the entire set, as well. She and the crowd feeding off of one another. While the crowd may have been full of dancers, they most definitely weren’t singers. When Sorbara tried to get the crowd to sing along, her high voice ringing through the room, she had to settle for a lower register “okay, so you guys are here”. She later quipped that she wasn’t going to have the crowd sing Happy Birthday, after she shouted someone out, because she didn’t think they could pull it off. This was all in jest of course.

The set itself wasn’t a long one, clocking in at an hour and fifteen minutes. And while I’ve found myself lately being alright with the hour-twenty/thirty shows lately, I think a few more songs would’ve hit the sweet spot. While the energy of the performance was a lot, it wasn’t at all fatiguing. Dragonette manages to weave a good set, it never felt monotonous. Once again, it kept the groove. In a lot of concerts, there’s a tendency to have a lull in the crowd, until the band plays one of their bangers, and the crowd takes off again. No lull here. 

Maybe if this was the dance music that played in clubs, I’d actually maybe possibly venture into one…albeit, as far away from the actual dance floor. Speaking of clubs…it was in a club (Venue), that I first photographed Dragonette, 11 years ago. The show was just as much fun to shoot now, as it was then. And a special shout out to being able to shoot the whole show this time around. Hopefully, the band keeps their word and they are back sooner rather than later. Not only is it a good show to shoot, but a fun one to watch.