What's in Your Fridge: Andrea Lo

by Mike Usinger on September 2nd, 2017 at 10:08 AM

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What’s In Your Fridge is where the Straight asks interesting Vancouverites about their life-changing concerts, favourite albums, and, most importantly, what’s sitting beside the Heinz Ketchup in their custom-made Big Chill Retropolitan 20.6 cubic-foot refrigerators.

On the grill

Andrea Lo of the Belle Game.

Who are you

I am one out of four music makers in Belle Game. I make my bed in the morning, ponder existentialism frequently, and water my plants in between.

First concert

I think my first concert was the Red Hot Chili Peppers at Rogers Arena, perhaps back in 2008. I remember going with my high school boyfriend, and his band at the time, who, of course, only performed covers of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Blink 182 covers. I might have had braces. Those were the days.

Life-changing concert

This is a recent one, so I have yet to witness the full scale of how this performance will impact my life, but we had the privilege of seeing Tanya Tagaq play at Wayhome this year. Coming on-stage she was soft spoken, warm-hearted, and sweet, but what was to follow was the most gut-wrenching, goosebump-inducing, honest, primal, dirty, and beautiful performance I have ever witnessed. Through her entire hourlong improv set her voice connected and spoke with the deep dualities and extremisms of my nature and granted me the permissions I felt I needed to become more of myself. Thanks Tanya.

Top three records

Yeah Yeah Yeahs Fever to Tell This album blew my mind, eyes, and ears wide open. The first time I heard this I was 16, staying with my sister in L.A. and interning for a summer at Tarantula Records, a DIY punk record label. I had no idea who the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were, but when I was sifting through the masses at Amoeba Records something about their CD stuck out to me, and the second I put it on my perception of music, what it could be, and what a woman can be, were completely shattered (in the very best and most expansive way possible).

Kendrick Lamar Damn Vulnerable, raw, honest, emotional, embodied. I don’t have many words for this album, but I can tell you that every time I listen to it there is a deep physiological stir that GIVES ME ALL THE FEELINGS.

Quiet Village Silent Movie Perhaps one of the most interesting albums I’ve had the pleasure of listening to. This album plays like a narrative of feeling and nostalgia, a revival of the Balearic music era from the '80s layered on top of what sounds like cult-classic film soundtracks from the '60s and '70s. Party on.

All-time favourite video

"Territory" by The Blaze It may be recent, but "Territory’" by The Blaze sits at the top of my list and just might remain there forever. Katrina from our band introduced me to this video a few months ago, and every single time I’ve watched it, from the very first scene, I've simultaneously felt my eyes well up, chest tighten, and spirit soar.

To me it’s a beautiful portrayal not just of a man’s return to his home, or the contrast and merging of new and old, but also of the beauty found in the often neglected, and abandoned softness of men. With the contrast between a visually masculine figure and the freedom, tenderness and joyful innocence found in his actions and dance, I can’t not feel deeply moved and opened up by his rawness and open vulnerability.