eskimeaux + Animal Maps f u c s show

I ended my Saturday night with a f u c s show in Haverford’s Lunt Basement featuring eskimeaux and Animals Maps. I had found out about the concert from a f u c s poster in New Dorm Dining Hall and was immediately excited because I had actually heard of eskimeaux before! (f u c s usually brings in super indie bands I’ve never heard of before.)12717570_766579273442760_7467746209544221464_n

  • Eskimeaux is the recording project of songwriter and producer Gabrielle Smith. Smith started using the moniker in 2007, releasing experimental and noise albums through 2010, and developing the sound over the years into the realm of more structured songwriting (2011’s Two Mountains), EDM (2012’s Eskimeaux), and more recently, as evident in her new album, O.K., beat-driven and poetic bedroom pop. Eskimeaux is a founding member of The Epoch, a Brooklyn-based songwriting and art collective.
  •  Animal Maps is an Indie/Chillwave Berklee College of Music Trio from Boston, MA.

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I usually assume f u c s show start late, so it’s hard to decide whether to take the 10pm or the 10:30pm Blue Bus. This time, it seems like the show started pretty on time at 10pm because my friends and I arrived at 10:40pm and Animal Maps played their last 3 songs. I wish I took the 10pm bus to see more of Animal Maps because I liked them too, but I was just too tired after my long day in Philly and after the SAS Culture Show to go earlier. I even took a nap between the culture show and the concert. Compared to other f u c s shows, this show was pretty crowded despite the cold. Quite a lot of Bryn Mawr students went too because the 10:30pm bus was packed. I had convinced a lot of my friends to go to the show with me because I had been raving non-stop about eskimeaux for the past week.

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After Animal Maps left the stage, my friends and I made our way to the front for eskimeaux. The change over took about 10 minutes and people went in and out of the room waiting for the next act to take the stage. eskimeaux is usually a 4 person live band, but for this show it was only 2: Gabrielle Smith and Oliver Kalb. Their show was extra special because they were performing a “never before seen pre-Valentine’s set” as Gabrielle liked to call it. It was also extra special because Smith and Kalb are in a relationship, so their interactions on stage were so cute.

IMG_0794In the beginning of her set, eskimeaux told the crowd that her first concert she attended was at Haverford College when she just dropped out of high school and a friend of her’s from Wynnewood was in a band performing for a f u c s show. That was when she realized she could continue being herself and doing what she loves as a musician. eskimeaux likes to dance and move her arms and hips a lot when she sings. For the song “Broken Necks” she got the audience involved in a call and response for the chorus.

After the show, I went up to eskimeaux and told her I knew her record label manager’s younger sister from high school. She immediately knew I was from Ridgewood! I also told her I was a fan of her music and that my favorite song was “A Hug Too Long.” I also wanted to tell her that I was also a fan of Mitski, another artist she is friends with, and that I had come across eskimeaux on Spotify by searching related artists to Mitski. Later I bought a button handmade by eskimeaux from her merchandise sale on a table in the back of Lunt for $1. The design is from their album “O.K.”

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My song recommendations: