Erica Manzoli returned to Paris less than a year after opening for Remy Bond at La Maroquinerie. Since then, she has released the EP First Girl on the Moon, which naturally forms the backbone of this thirty-minute opening set at La Machine du Moulin Rouge before Em Beihold.
Accompanied by a guitarist, a handful of backing tracks and, on several songs, an omnichord she plays herself, Manzoli delivers a set of bright, agile pop songs that avoid the empty polish often associated with the genre. There is wit in the writing, movement in the arrangements and enough emotional weight beneath the hooks to give the material some staying power.
The audience responds immediately, dancing, singing along where it can and paying close attention during the quieter moments. Judging by the reaction in the room, a fair number of these people will likely turn up again when she eventually returns to Paris under her own name. This is how opening acts build an audience, one city at a time. Catching an artist at that stage of the journey always feels a little special.
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