By: Henry Wolfe

On Friday, February 6th, Sudan Archives made a stop at Madison’s Majestic Theater and put on one of the most electrifying performances I’ve seen in a while. In general, it’s always fun when a group of people come together to enjoy live music, but tonight was made even more special by Sudan’s immense stage presence and the sold out, 600-capacity theater. 

As the opener, Cain Culto did a fantastic job of warming up the audience with his own unique sound; similar to Sudan, he plays the violin, but his music draws heavily from Kentucky Bluegrass mixed with hip-hop, pop, and latin beats. I was only a little familiar with his music going into the performance after listening to his recent EP, but even without knowing any lyrics or many songs, his energy and music made it easy to dance or clap along. 

Sudan Archives opened her set with the opener from her most recent album, “DEAD”, and the live rendition of the violin part was different from streaming, adding to the experience. The stage design was simple: in the center was a smaller, circular stage, off to the left was a stand for her extra violin and to the right was a keyboard and drum pad, both of which were used plenty throughout the show. 

Her show wasn’t limited to just songs from her most recent album; she also included hits from her sophomore album Natural Brown Prom Queen including like “NBPQ” and “Freakalizer”, as well as songs from past EPs like “Nont For Sale” and “Come Meh Way”. Of course, she played heavy hitters from The BPM like “A Bug’s Life”, “YEA YEA YEA”, and “A COMPUTER LOVE”, amongst others, and the show never got boring with the way she would seamlessly transition between the violin, keys, and the drum pads. For me the highlight of the show was during “MY TYPE” when she brought up two audience members to dance on the center stage while she stood off to the side playing keys. 

Sudan ended her show with “HEAVEN KNOWS”from The BPM and “Selfish Soul” from Natural Brown Prom Queen, which both would have served as more laid back set closers if she hadn’t done an encore where she set a new high for the night. The encore started with Sudan bringing Cain Culto back out to perform their song together, “KFC Santería – Sudan Archives Remix”, and seeing them both on stage together made it obvious why she picked Cain to open for the midwest leg of her tour. After that she performed “THE NATURE OF POWER” where she stepped off stage and joined the audience to dance, and ended the night with a performance of “THE BPM”, the high energy title track of her most recent album.

I wasn’t able to stick around, but after the show she said she was going to be at the merch table to meet with the audience. It’s always a nice touch when artists make an attempt to connect with their fans, and another way that Sudan Archives has been doing that is reposting fan videos of her concerts on instagram, which is a great place to get a feel of her concerts without needing to go in person. Ever since The BPM came out, I had been waiting (patiently) to see the album live, and I must say that Sudan Archives delivered a performance that blew my expectations out of the water.