Another night, another great show at the Iron Horse in Northampton, Mass. This time we were treated to the sensuous and beautiful rhythmic flow of the indie hip-hop artist Ana Tijoux. Frankly, I’m still surprised her tour took her here of all places, especially how the majority of the performance’s audience turned out to be mature to older white women. Not exactly the most lively and ethnically diverse crowd New England has to offer… but at least we were there to represent the under-40 crowd.

Serendipitously showing up just as she took the mic, we could tell from our first glimpse of Ana and her three-man live band (lead by the DJ, Horfatoj) they were there to bring a fun, hip-shaking time. Ana, clearly born an entertainer, shined her soft smile and openly showed off her tattoos (an Ouroboros on her shoulder and ’1977′ on her hand) as she laid on us her sweet Spanish-Chilean lyrics without a hesitation in pace.

While naturally she performed her more well-known “1977″ and “A Veces,” every one of the downtempo songs brought a joyfulness I find absent in many rap acts. Each one invoked dancing and her youthful, exotic energy fill the entire tracklist. She even channeled a little jouissance, some sexual charm by commenting about which songs that were intended for “baby-making.” In the end, I would sum up the mood of the concert as playful, what with her jokes, her nonchalant honesty about not knowing English too well, and her very interactions with her musical support. She literally made the other band members show off their drumming skills in the middle of a song.

I haven’t been this smitten by a singer in some time. ANA COME BACKKKK :(

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[Editor's Note: We originally included in this post a disparaging comment about who we thought was the opening act, A Severe Love. Turns out they didn't precede Ana and the Iron Horse listing we looked at was wrong. Whoops. Regardless, they still sound like a crappier version of The Killers, despite the act leader José Ayerve saying he "hardly knows that band" in an email.]

Photography courtesy of my boy Sabato at SabatoBox.