All Photo Credit: Elena St. George
Step Right Up: Haute & Freddy’s Big, Beautiful Disgrace
Last week, Haute & Freddy charmed the audience with their whimsical, positively chaotic energy at the Fonda in L.A. While playing songs from their new album, Big Disgrace, the vibrant duo captivated everyone’s attention while they performed songs like “Showgirl at Heart" and “Scantily Clad," even inviting audience members up on stage to join them at times.
Haute & Freddy
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I knew the second Haute & Freddy stepped onto the Fonda stage that I was in for beautiful chaos, and a whole lot of fun. The duo arrived with a plethora of whimsical chaos. It all refused to stay inside the frame. A blur of sequins, theatrical gestures, blown out expressions and energy that make me put the camera down just to soak it all in. An easy acceptance of the joyful invitation they gifted. From the pit, I was constantly chasing the next moment. Knowing that whatever I had just captured was probably already being replaced by something stranger, louder and more fun.
The night centered around their album, Big Disgrace, with songs loved such as “Showgirl at Heart” and “Scantily Clad” bringing their eccentric brand of glamor and mischief to life. Haute & Freddy have a knack for making camp become completely sincere, and welcomed.
Nothing about the performance seemed overly rehearsed or polished to the point of losing its personality. The stage was as vibrant, as the crowd. Yet, there was something wonderfully unpredictable about it. At times, audience members were pulled onto the stage, dissolving whatever invisible line usually separates performer from spectator. Theatricality was play. Inhibitions were let go.
That spontaneity made the Fonda feel like a playground. One that from a far had a heart beat of an invitation too delicious to turn down. From behind my camera, I watched the crowd become part of the spectacle. There was a lot of laughter, dancing, and willingly surrendering themselves to whatever Haute & Freddy had to come. There were moments when I found myself lowering my camera because trying to document the experience felt beside the point. Some things are better witnessed than framed.
By the end of the night, Big Disgrace was absorbed, and fully experienced. Haute & Freddy had built a little world inside the Fonda and invited everyone into it, no matter how ridiculous, glamorous or chaotic it became. Those were the best parts of it all. I walked away with a memory card full of images, but more importantly, with the feeling that I had actually been somewhere where it was openly safe to just be. You can capture the evidence of a concert, but you can never quite capture the magic. Haute & Freddy made a lot of impossibility feel possible in all of there magnetic whimsy.
Article by: Elena St. George
Plug In. Tune Out.
Haute & Freddy are an alternative synth-pop duo based in Los Angeles known for their theatrical 18th-century carnivalesque aesthetic and 1980s-inspired dance-pop sound. They frame their musical personas as misfit circus runaways from an 18th-century carnival who didn't fit in because they lacked traditional circus skills, choosing instead to start a secret band and antagonize aristocrats