On Saturday we stopped by the Emancipator show at Neumos to a packed house, sweet visuals, and a live violinist. With 300 plus in tow the show ran into early Sunday morning with head nodding tunes, and hip shaking cuts. The acclaimed Portland artist who has performed alongside Bassnectar is currently touring in support of his new album ‘Dusk to Dawn’. The show opened with a performance by artist Little People.

Emancipator brought a live violinist to perform with him providing an eclectic and well balanced synchronicity to his laid back beats as well as a welcome change to the click and play laptop musicians. The violin played by Ilya Goldberg weaved through the Emancipator album like a neccesary musical key in a patchwork quilt, a patchwork that would have seemed nice without it but was added for good cause as can be heard on the song ‘Minor Cause.’ The amp-jacked violin provided an eerie film of ambiance on the already spacious tune to extreme effectiveness and a satisfied crowd response. Add with that a grooving bass line running through the track made it hard for the audience not to nod their heads. You can give it a listen in the video below:

On his track ‘Dusk to Dawn’ the violin hit a country twang backed by a hip-hop’ish beat which got the sweat filled Neumos event swaying back and forth. A mesmerizing  tune with its subtle background vocals I could already picture a hip-hop artist hoping on stage and rapping over it.  An almost undefinable artist Emancipator brought a lot of excitement to Capitol Hill and you can see the excitement here in these photos by NCC photographer Nate Leese:

All photos taken by Nate Leese. Article written by Sebastian Garrett-Singh