You Nearly Missed: Thievery Corporation at the Harbour Event & Convention Centre on December 28

by Mike Usinger on December 27th, 2023 at 10:52 AM

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As a mission statement, it’s one that seems even more important today than when Thievery Corporation first came together in the mid-’90s.

Multi-instrumentalists and producers Rob Garza and Eric Hilton have been on a three-decade journey where the goal is to bring people together—not just on the dance floor, but as human beings.

Right from the DC-based duo’s genre-blending debut, Sounds from the Thievery Hi-Fi, the message has been clear: we’ve got more in common than we might dare to dream. And god knows that thinking resonates in the dying days of 2023, when wars are taking place on multiple fronts in the world, and politics everywhere, including Canada, have created battle lines where it’s “us versus them.”

In the world of Thievery Corporation, there’s never been a dividing of the tribes; Hilton and Garza show as much love for fans of downtempo electronica and DIY punk as they did for global world music and chillout jazz.

Forget picking a lane and sticking to it—the group has pretty much committed to drawing up its own roadmap, collaborating over the years with everyone from the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne and Brazilian giant Bebel Gilberto to Jane’s Addiction’s Perry Farrell and the famously iconoclastic David Byrne. Long-time fans, meanwhile, have discovered that half the fun of records like The Richest Man in Babylon and Symphonik is embracing this idea of musical trainspotting, reference points ranging from old-school Brooklyn hip-hop and vinyl Bollywood soundtracks to Brazilian bossa nova and splifftastic Kingston reggae.

For live shows, meanwhile, the guiding philosophy of Hilton and Garza has always been that no one wants to stand there and watch a couple of guys press “play” on the MacBook, with backing musicians and guest vocalists helping get the party started.

All that’s another way of saying that the world would be a better place if it embraced the idea of love and inclusivity, and Thievery Corporation has been preaching that message from the beginning. Don’t forget to hug your fellow humans on the dance floor.