The Netherlands’ own Full Crate & Mar with guest NYC soul man Jesse Boykins III brought some global soul to Los Angeles. In a town where audiences can feel pulled from casting, these funky globetrotters attracted the folks that never come out. Two cutting edge acts on the verge crowded hundreds of influencers and hard LA “8s and above” into Santa Monica’s venerable Zanzibar for a pair of performances so casual they felt impromptu.

Jesse Boykins III wasted no time whipping the crowd into a frenzy. A kinetic mass of tendons, hair and bones (with just over 1.5 million YouTube channel views) Boykins toyed with the crowd like he was headlining a stadium. Backed by San Francisco’s able band The Park, Boykins’ popular compositions like “B4 the Night is Through” rumbled and rocked the tight space. The crowd was familiar with the material, singing along and cheering for YouTube hits like “Back Home (Mermaids & Dragons).” By the time his encore was finished it was hard to believe that the headliner was still to come.

Full Crate & Mar stepped on stage like veteran performers. Veteran performers that even a tech glitch couldn’t derail. Once everything was plugged and re-plugged in, charismatic singer Mar wasted no time showing the crowd that Amsterdam knows how to hold shit down. Full Crate elevated his button pusher position by infusing tracks with new elements on the fly. Previously released downtempo feeling tracks like “She Was Fly” were energized by moombathon beats and live keys from Full Crate as necessary. Refusing to rest on his voice alone, Mar grabbed an acoustic guitar half way through the show and launched into some of his solo material capped off by his viral cover of “Single” by Lil’ Wayne. Mar’s presence was relaxed to the point of withdrawn and this was hurting the performance until “Single” gave way to the unexpected, “Pretty Boy Swag” by Soulja Boy. The dirty south sound energized Mar and connected him to the crowd. Once he had them, the laconic show became swift and fun. As their cover version of J. Dilla’s “2U4U” capped their 45 minute performance to the sounds of screams and cheers, someone in the crowd asked of no one in particiular “it can’t be over already? can it?”