Ibeyi Setlist

Eleggua
Ghosts
Lost In My Mind
Mama Says
Behind the Curtain
Shango / Yemaya
I’m On My Way
River
Stranger / Lover
Yanira
Singles
Oya
Fly
Better In Tune With The Infinite (Jay Electronica cover)
Weatherman
Chains
Faithful
Think Of You
Ibeyi
— Encore —
River (reprise)

French-Cuban duo Ibeyi (twin sisters Lisa-Kaindé Diaz and Naomi Diaz) recently stopped by Mill City Nights in Minneapolis, their second appearance in the Twin Cities this year.

Opening up the show was London’s Vicktor Taiwò. He’s accompanied by guitarist Ryan, who provided all the music and loops during Taiwò’s 30-minute set.

Based on the darkened lighting (mostly in near-darkness) and his deep personal lyrics, I got the impression that Taiwò was really shy about bearing his soul for us on Tuesday. Most of his set was taken from his Juno EP, including the first two, “Paradise Island” and “Curse”. This was followed by a new song and then “Digital Kids”, a song featuring Solomon on the studio recording.

Since we had just seen Ibeyi earlier six months ago, at the Cedar… their set remained relatively unchanged. There’s really only so much music you can arrange if you only have one album. Comparing their setlist from March and now, I can see that they’ve added a few more songs (including a bonus song “Chains”) on their new set, so they can fill an hour.

Also, a brand new song was played for us, they called it “Fly”, which they played right before their Jay Electronica cover song “Better In Tune With The Infinite”.

If you’ve seen the earlier show, this is basically the same show, complete with the explanation of the daughter of thunder (“Shango”), the daughter of the sea (“Yemaya”), and of course actually repeating their most popular song “River” at the encore. They didn’t finish the song, instead, leaving it up to the audience to sing back the chorus.

The biggest surprise of the night really had nothing to do with the music, but instead was about who was in attendance. They had sectioned off the entire balcony for his royal purpleness Prince, along with three women friends and two bodyguards. The group showed up around 10:30pm and remained at a table watching the entire show. Prince is a big fan, having tweeted out “Twin Sisters/Twin Cities : Welcome Ibeyi !!!” just prior to their show.

Ibeyi’s self-titled debut album is out now on XL Recording.

Remaining tour dates:

09/26/15 Mercy Lounge Nashville
09/27/15 Terminal West Atlanta
09/28/15 Haw River Ballroom Graham
09/30/15 9:30 Club Washington
10/02/15 Webster Hall New York
10/03/15 Royale Boston
10/04/15 Virgin Mobile Corona Theatre Montreal
10/09/15 Ancienne Belgique Brussels
10/10/15 La Cartonnerie Reims
10/12/15 Le Trianon Paris
10/13/15 La Vapeur Dijon
10/14/15 Nancy Jazz Pulsations Nancy
10/16/15 Ouest Park Festival Le Havre
11/02/15 Concorde 2 Brighton

11/03/15 Koko London
11/04/15 Trinity Bristol
11/06/15 Oobleck Birmingham
11/07/15 Brudenell Leeds
11/08/15 Gorilla Manchester
11/10/15 King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut Glasgow
11/18/15 Le Bikini Toulouse
11/19/15 Paloma Nimes
11/20/15 Théâtre de Villefranche Villefranche
12/08/15 Melkweg Oude Zaal Amsterdam
12/09/15 Mojo Club Hamburg
12/11/15 Kesselhaus Berlin
12/12/15 Kantine Cologne
12/13/15 Technikum Münich