The Hellp - 14.03.26 - Cabaret Sauvage

My first experience of the Los Angeles-based electronic duo¹1Started out as a trio in 2015, Noah Dillon and Chandler Ransom Lucy, was a year ago when my boyfriend invited me to see their concert in Paris at Badaboum in February 2025, for their tour following the release of their second studio album and major-label²2Released on Atlantic Records debut LL, released in 2024. I was familiar with a couple of their most well-known tracks at the time and was happy to go, but didn't quite know what I was getting myself into.

As we reached the venue and I got a look at the line to enter, I realised that everyone was wearing skinny jeans and leather jackets, or at least some variation of that outline, as my boyfriend had warned me they would be. These were mostly white people in their early twenties or late teenage years.

As soon as we entered the mid-sized single-levelled venue, I began to gauge the vibe. Stylish people, over-performing a sort of aloof cool energy. But once Dillon and Lucy took the stage and played their first song, Rllynice, the whole room let go and it was confirmed mayhem.

My memories of the show consist of watching the duo (Dillon on vocals and Lucy on the synths, samplers, and mixing), both heavily hunched over and anonymised by their shoulder-length haircuts. The rest was flashing white lights and just a lot of jumping. The venue wasn't that big and we were quite close to the stage, so the entire time I was heavily sardine-packed in the midst of these teens going absolutely feral. And I followed. And it was… pretty extraordinary.

We ended up stepping out into the brisk, wintry Parisian street, clothes drenched, looking like wet dogs, but happy, having experienced probably one of my most unexpected heavy serotonin boosts of the year.

That was my introduction to the polarising duo who describe themselves as “the only cool band left in music today”. Which, stripped of everything surrounding them, is two white dudes hunched over a mic or a synth with flashing white lights. And yet somehow it works. The question was whether it would work a second time.

Fast forward a year: after having released Riviera in November 2025, the duo was coming back to Paris for a show at Cabaret Sauvage, with an official afterparty at the club Silencio.

This time I knew what to expect, but also knew the show might not be as intense due to the fact that the venue is larger and wouldn't pack such a strong ripple of energy into a crowd that has more space to do their own thing.

Upon arrival, I was much more attentive to the crowd and the fashion than I was the first time around. Within the larger and well-lit space, you could see the bourgeois emo/punk fashions, with their Sony Handycam camcorders at the ready, scrambling to get into the coat-check line or to hit up the bathroom stalls to check their hair and makeup, and most probably to indulge in some dry goods.

The first time around, I realised that the audience was younger, but it still felt like there were more people in their twenties. This time, however, it was becoming clear that we were probably some of the oldest people at the show (in my ripe old age of 26, mind you). The Hellp once said on the Chris Heyn Show that their audience is 19-23 year-old males, now growing to include females, and this show reflected that pretty accurately. And it's funny because The Hellp preaches that they reject categorisation, intellectual bullshit, etc., but their audience is nothing but subversive. They are part of the alternative crowd, but there's nothing really alternative about everybody wearing the same style military jacket.³3If you're curious about where the fashion trend stems from: https://www.whowhatwear.com/fashion/luxury/military-jacket-trend Pretty sure I haven't seen such a clear-cut category since school uniforms.

They kicked off their set with Country Road, the lead single off Riviera, interpolating John Denver’s refrain with noisy electronica, and followed it with Rllynice, which already gave the show a slightly less intense opening. Don't get me wrong, the epileptic white flashing lights were still the centre of the show, but the bigger venue, more space, and high ceiling definitely gave more room to breathe. The only people who were really in the sweaty mess were the group right at front center, and I know this because post-show they were sat on the steps at the edge of the pit, defeated, having given it their all. But otherwise there was plenty of room to enjoy without feeling suffocated, at least if you were on the sides.

The set featured quite a few tracks off Riviera (Doppler, Here I Am, Meridian, Pray To Evil) and it definitely gave the set calmer moments. I can't help but think that perhaps it also made the audience lose a bit of momentum. But Here I Am worked well, with loads of people singing along to the memorable hook, it also being their most-listened song on Spotify from the album as of March 2026.

As a final remark: calmer than the first time I saw them, would do again. Sometimes it doesn't take that much to rile people up and get them to have a good time. Or perhaps it highlights that the perception you create of yourself in the media will always influence your shows, and how people show up for your music. I'm just really entertained by flashing white lights, I guess. But are they the only cool band left? Depends on whether you’re stood in the pit or not.