We Went There: Oklou at First Avenue
Artist: Oklou, Vickie Cherie
The last time oklou played Minneapolis it was snowing — she mentioned it near the end of the night, said she remembered being amazed by the frozen Mississippi River. I was in that room too. The distance between that show and this sold-out First Avenue feels enormous. I first caught oklou opening for Caroline Polachek in 2021 which is the show she was referencing. Her ascent since then has felt inevitable, but a sold-out First Ave still caught me a little off guard. The demand was real, and the room knew every word.
Opener Vickie Cherie performed behind a screen, her silhouette layered under projections of waves, cities, and moving figures – hazy and immersive, like watching a figure in an aquarium. Breathy vocals, bassy and thundering underneath, 40 minutes of dreamy French pop that won the crowd over well before the headliner. When she stepped out from behind the screen to thank everyone, the response was huge.
After a somewhat long changeover, oklou came out to a white plastic tiered stage draped in billowing fabric. She opened alone in near-darkness, lingering in the shadows before playing a red light-up flute adding glow to the room towards the end of the first song. Then things opened up. From her elevated platform, flanked by two musicians, she moved through a 18-song set that kept building. The staging was theatrical – dramatic lighting, shifting projections, a ceremonial quality to the whole thing – but she was also incredibly warm and talkative between songs, introducing her band with real affection. Feels like the biggest pop star in the world to this crowd, and also like your friend talking to you from the stage.
“Galore” got a massive response. The crowd sang along to “god’s chariots.” Even the balcony was dancing. The instrumental passages occasionally drifted toward new age ambient Pure Moods territory before accelerating into something closer to a rave. It works completely.
Midway through, she sat on the stage floor with a small keyboard for “viscus,” then picked up the bass for the collaboration with Casey MQ (one of her two musicians) “The Make Believe”. She donned a sparkly wig for “choke enough” and crouched at the front of the stage. She gave a quick shoutout to A.G. Cook before playing his remix of “fall.”
The encore was her sitting at the edge of the stage with an acoustic guitar, recalling the frozen river of five years ago, leading the two song encore of “want to wanna come back” follow by a “Blade Bird” sing-along. Afterward she stayed at the front to sign records, phone cases, whatever people handed her reinforcing the feeling of being the completely approachable pop star.
Setlist: ict / thank you for recording / obvious / plague dogs / take me by the hand (with Casey MQ) / endless / galore / The Make Believe (with Casey MQ) / family and friends / harvest sky (with Casey MQ) / god’s chariots / Lurk (with Casey MQ) / viscus / dance 2 / what’s good (avril23 cover) / fall (a.g. cook remix) / choke enough / ict – Encore: want to wanna come back / blade bird
