Tour Dates

4.4 – Chicago, IL @ House of Blues
4.5 – Detroit, MI @ St Andrew’s Hall
4.7 – Toronto, ONT @ Phoenix Concert Theatre
4.8 – Montreal, QUE @ L’Olympia
4.10 – Boston, MA @ Royale
4.11 – New York, NY @ Brooklyn Steel
4.12 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
4.13 – Washington DC @ 9:30 Club
4.15 – Atlanta, GA @ Buckhead Theater
4.16 – Orlando, FL @ House of Blues
4.17 – Miami, FL @ Revolution

French electronic swing band Caravan Palace headlined First Avenue, in Minneapolis, last night (April 3, 2025), in support of Gangbusters Melody Club (Le Plan Recordings).

Opening the show was Caravan Palace’s trombone player Martin Berlugue, under his stagename ZAYKA. The warmup set started with a smooth live trombone song with some looping beats. Then it’s just Zayka turning knobs and pushing buttons to produce a live DJ set. His 30-min set is more involved than the average DJ show, due to the live mixing and the oversize trombone playing.

His English wasn’t very good, but everybody understood what he was trying to say. For his last song, he let down his hair, indicating that he was going to take his set to level 10.

The dancing continues when Caravan Palace took the stage. This is a very large band, and includes singer and clarinetist Zoé Colotis, guitarist and production Arnaud “Vial” de Bosredon, bassist Charles Delaporte, percussionist/keyboardist Paul-Marie Barbier, saxophonist Lucas Saint-Cricq, and trombone player Martin Berlugue. Missing on this North American tour was their dancer, Odd Sweet.

Although currently it’s a large band, they did start off as a trio, writing original songs for a silent adult film. They continue working and booking a series of live gigs, before recruiting more band members using MySpace. By 2008, the group released their self-titled debut album and sold over 150,000 copies worldwide, thanks to being on the French music charts for 68 weeks.

We caught the band in June 2016 and wrote, “I had no clue that this band would essentially be the Love-Child of modern Electronica and 1920’s swing, or that they would in fact, steal my heart. The energy was tangibly palpable, and reciprocated between the performers and the audience in a way I hadn’t seen in ages. While the colorful and deep hues of electro-waves hypnotized the crowd, the simultaneous brilliance and authentic 20’s swing overtones enlivened everyone’s bones. The audience was truly enraptured. It felt almost sacred, a subtle letting down of our collective guards. Caravan Palace immediately gave us permission to enter into celebration; a wild and yet knowing aliveness took hold, and we danced. And danced. There were so many smiles throughout the audience all night it was infectious.”

As the same with their 2016 appearance, the band does bring an incredible energy to their show and they sounded fantastic on stage. This is a band you have to see… and the audience, although a little older, they were all dressed up in their fanciest clothing and dancing and doing their best flapper dance.

Caravan Palace’s latest album Gangbusters Melody Club is out now on Le Plan Recordings.