REVIEW: Rochelle Jordan @ Paradise Rock Club 3/23
Photo Credit: Amanda Elise K
Review by Olivia Florin
On a cold and dreary Monday night, R&B and electronic soul artist Rochelle Jordan brought some much-needed heat to Boston through her electrifying and genre-bending performance that kept the crowd on their feet.
After moving to Canada from England as a child, Jordan started uploading covers of Justin Bieber songs to YouTube. These videos then caught the attention of Los Angeles-based producer KLSH, who has been her main collaborator since. Jordan now has a flourishing solo career with a discography of six albums and numerous singles, EPs, and mixtapes, as well as features on mainstream hits, including a writing and background vocal credit on Childish Gambino’s “Telegraph Ave.”
Following the release of her sixth studio album, “Through The Wall,” last September, Jordan set out on a world tour in February. On Monday, she graced the stage at Boston’s Paradise Rock Club for a night filled with dancing, disco-diva glamour, and freedom.
Accompanying Jordan was the DJ, Chrysalis, who both opened the show with an exhilarating set of lively house music and joined Jordan on stage later as her own personal DJ.
Shortly after Chrysalis’ set, the house lights went dark, and the plethora of multi-colored spotlights began to strobe, eliciting a roar from the audience. Jordan stepped onto the stage sporting a white shirt, black tie, slacks, and leather gloves as the first notes of the album’s opening track, “Grace,” began to play, which sent the crowd absolutely wild.
Jordan’s minimalist stage design also contributed to the show’s ethereal nature. Jordan danced around the stage surrounded by a halo of twenty-something multicolored spotlights, basking in their multi-colored glow. The spotlights emulated raindrops, and they flashed to the beat of the music, mesmerizing the crowd even further.
“Are you guys ready to dance with me?” Jordan asked the crowd. She was met with hundreds of resounding screams of “yes!”
Jordan’s charisma, though, shone brighter than any of the lights on the stage. Both Jordan and Chrysalis captivated the audience with smooth and addictive renditions of “TTW,” “Close 2 Me,” and “Ladida,” the latter of which was a particular crowd favorite. Her powerful vocals layered flawlessly over glittering synths and pulsing basslines. Fans in the crowd not only knew every single word but also seamlessly performed Jordan’s own choreography to the song in sync with her.
The final segment brought the show to a spectacular close with some of Jordan’s most popular hits from her latest album, “The Boy,” “Sweet Sensation,” and “I’m Your Muse,” which are all sure to become club classics. Before Jordan could step off the stage, the crowd repeatedly chanted “one more song” until Jordan closed out the show with her 2011 hit “All I Know.”
Jordan specializes in dance music that effortlessly blends modern and old-school elements into something fresh. Her ability to sit in between genres and incorporate nostalgic ’90s R&B into electronic house beats was evident as she played hits from her latest album. Jordan’s music feels like it’s meant to be heard way too late into an after-after party in a dark room illuminated by soft LEDs, holding onto someone whose name you don’t quite remember. It has a hypnotizing and cinematic-like quality that makes it easy to fall into and invites you to move along to the beat.
Jordan’s crowd ran the gamut from millennial couples, who inconspicuously checked work emails in between the two sets, to teenagers whose parents dropped them off in front of the venue. This, in my opinion, says a lot about the versatility and universal appeal of Jordan’s music and the community she aims to create at her shows. “You are safe here, we are all one here,” Jordan assured the crowd. “There’s a lot going on in the world, and I’m doing my best as an artist to give you guys something to lean on. But tonight, we dance. Tonight, we party.”
While lovers of ’90s R&B or those who wish they could time-travel back to the 1970s to party at Studio 54 certainly fit her niche. Jordan’s music is, at its core, focused on losing yourself in the beat and creating a community that everyone can be a part of. Jordan even had an ASL interpreter, something I have never seen at any other show that I’ve attended. Jordan makes one thing clear: her music is for everyone. This community was something I was witness to all night long. No matter what your age, where you came from, or who you were, when you were dancing along to Jordan, you were free to be anyone and anything you wanted, free of inhibition.
In just one hour and fifteen minutes, Jordan transformed Paradise Rock Club into the best dance club in the city and took the Boston crowd straight to the VIP section with her incredible stage presence, silky smooth vocals, and passion for bringing people together through music.