New York diva Tiombe Lockhart was confounding choice to open the much hyped-up appearance of recluse songwriter Cody ChestnuTT on Thursday. Most were probably expecting a Traci Chapman type to come out and lull us with her acoustic, which is why jaws effectively dropped when a striking Lockhart marched on stage in tight disco shorts, a revelatory top and wailing take-no-shit, electro-beat circuited R&B jams with a live drummer.
Lockhart stomped and shaked before growing weary of the crowd’s sit-down-and-clap politeness, so she jumped off the restrictively high stage and began rocking it in the first row, putting ear-to-ear grins on the lucky lads up front.
Before it got too burlesque she acrobatically climbed back up to finish her lyrically-sharp set, an unwaveringly cool run through ESG- influenced 80s New York underground funk. If discoveries are made at Pop Montreal, I feel as though I hit gold here.
