Beyond the party cannons: Club favorite Sofi Tukker have style of their own
Tucker Halpern and Sophie Hawley-Weld of the genre-crossing duo Sofi Tukker were introduced to Las Vegas’ mega-club culture separately. But they were struck by the same feeling.
“I was overwhelmed,” Halpern says of the New Year’s Eve 2014 show starring Kaskade at XS Nightclub. “I was like, ‘This is mecca.’ ”
Hawley-Weld saw a Kygo show at Encore Beach Club in 2017.
“It was just like, ‘Whoa, what is happening?’ ” she says. “It was just, like, so much stimulation … it was electric.”
The musical partners and close friends since college are back at XS Nightclub on Friday (doors at 10:30 p.m.). Sofi Tukker also will be among the headliners at the T-Mobile Zone at Sphere during the Nov. 20-22 Formula One Las Vegas Grand Prix, taking the Saturday slot before T-Pain.
Some highlights and news morsels from our interview this week:
Flutes in the club: S.T.’s latest album, “Butter,” is rich with Brazilian sounds and instrumental arrangements. It is the counter to “Bread,” their comparatively brazen 2024 release. This is an EDM album that invokes acoustic and electric guitar, accordion, horns and flutes. You samba to “Butter,” an album that plays well both at home and amid the strobes at XS.
Jazz in the development: Hawley-Weld says of the duo’s adventurism: “It’s this constant evolution process, a learning process. I started as a jazz singer-songwriter, and then Tucker introduced me, really, to electronic music. From there, I never anticipated I would even be a DJ, but now I now I love it.”
“Party on the Dance Floor” is a new Sofi Tukker favorite: The club mix of metal band Drowning Pool’s “Bodies,” is a highlight on the new album: Known as a mosh pit anthem, the song is now featured in Sofi Tukker’s club performances.
Woo-hoo! could be in the future: Sofi Tukker has been experimenting with “Song 2” by Blur. Halpern explains it’s “the ‘woo-hoo!’” song. This might be on S.T.’s next release. “I don’t know if it’s going to actually happen in real life, but it looks like it might,” he says. “It’s such a fun song to play in a DJ set, because anytime you hear that guitar bit, everyone in the crowd goes, ‘Woo-hoo!’”
In gear for F1: Sofi Tukker has played Formula One events before, including the Miami Grand Prix in May and is booked at the Austin, Texas, race in October. “I think it’s a really cool culture. It’s a sport, but it’s so much around so many other things than the sport itself,” Halpern says. “I think any good excuse to have great events and have a city taken over by excitement and parties and tourism is great.”
But he qualifies: “We were in Europe last year, I think (during the race), and I had serious FOMO watching all the festivities for the first year. I mean, not necessarily all the traffic. I didn’t miss that.”
They love Sophie Tucker: There are a few entry points into the duo’s name, a mashup of their first names. But how about Sophie Tucker, the popular music hall performer from generations ago? Paul Anka was her opening act in 1958 at the Sahara. The Beatles covered her tune “Till There Was You,” including an iconic performance on their first appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” Paul McCartney introduced the song with, “This is a number from our favorite American group, Sophie Tucker.”
Halpern responds to that reference with “No way!” and his partner cutting in, “Tucker, you have seen this video!”
“I have?” Halpern says. “Yes!” Hawley-Weld reminds him. She then says, “It’s just a great alignment, because she was just so cool and so ahead of her time. Carrying on her name is an honor.”
They are company people — their own: “We’re in this really fun stage of sort of brewing what’s next,” Hawley-Weld says. “We just started a management company together, with Miles Shear (of Palm Tree management) and (veteran music industry exec) Bella Tamis, called Animal Talk. We’re going to be growing Animal Talk, and making music.”
Who? Here?
Sphere invariably winds up in conversation about where legends can still blaze a trail. The Who is currently on “The Song Is Over” tour, pledging that this will be the band’s final tour. They stop at the MGM Grand on Saturday night.
From a review of the band’s performance Sunday at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, California, by classic rock pub Rock Cellar Magazine: “The screen display, meanwhile, was especially impressive — and wouldn’t have felt out of place at a venue like Sphere Las Vegas, should the band ever have aims of taking its live show to the state-of-the-art facility for a run of gigs (which wouldn’t count as touring, after all).”
Now, do we need The Who at Sphere? And when do tickets go on sale? Follow along …