Oklou Weaves Kitsch and High Art at Washington, D.C.’s 9:30 Club

The coolest aesthetics, especially in 2026, can be found at the intersection between kitsch and high art. Oklou knows this. A certain high-low mishmash is on display throughout her Choke Enough Tour. The first indication was the recorder that the French art-pop singer-producer, born Marylou Maniel, played during her show on Monday night at Washington D.C.’s 9:30 Club. Not only was she playing a recorder, a quirky choice in itself, but the recorder lit up, emitting a halo of orange light.

Later, a purple laser shot out of the electric guitar of one of Maniel’s two bandmates. About three-fourths of the way through the show, the view from an “Oklove Cam” was displayed on screen as a team member zoomed in on the trio making heart hands at the camera, before turning to the audience to catch some giddy fans, including one impassioned make-out, in action.

These pretty bold choices might be especially shocking to someone who embraced Oklou’s 2025 album Choke Enough. At first blush, the album is notable for its unwillingness to play around with anything you might deem overt or crass. It’s an ethereal, minimalist effort, one that eventually finds its way to its beats and grooves but which is mostly content to murmur and chirp and gurgle along. Dig a little deeper, though, and Choke Enough is smartly subverting garish and decidedly uncool things like Eurodance and Enya. Oklou’s deconstructionism and re-contextualization of these touchpoints is her secret sauce.

Despite its intentionally jarring prop flourishes, the tour’s set design is largely tasteful and chic. The stage at 9:30 Club was covered in a loosely fitting white sheet, blanketing everything from the table where the electronic instruments sat to the space behind the stage. The lights bathed the sheet in various monochrome shades (it was red for “Galore,” from Oklou’s 2020 album of the same name). The simplicity of the effect was striking.

Maniel amped up the songs from Choke Enough that flirt with dance music. “Harvest Sky,” which erupted when its techno-horn synth really gets going, induced an ecstatic reaction in the sold-out room, and “Dance 2” similarly went off thunderously. The choice to ground the ethereality didn’t work quite as well on the otherwise stunning “Blade Bird,” which served as the encore. The drums were mixed too loud for this gentle ditty about the inevitability of being hurt by that which you love the most.

Part of Maniel’s ability to sell cheeky yet sincere elements is her soothing and easy stage presence. She made full use of the stage, at one point sidling up next to her bandmate who was banning the mixers, sometimes swaying on a swing that hung from the ceiling, in other instances kneeling or cross-legged as she played the keyboard or sang. Maniel moved with patience and purpose, and dedicated “Want to Wanna Come Back” to “taking our time in 2026.”