XPN Fest Recap: Sean Ardoin starts a zydeco party on Sunday night

Sean Ardoin | photo by Makena Duffy for WXPN

To close out the festivities on Wiggins Park’s Marina Stage, Louisiana-born zydeco bandleader Sean Ardoin brought pure jubilation to the crowd. As the singer and accordionist always says, “There ain’t no party like a zydeco party.”

The four-piece band, who played dance music in the style that WXPN’s Zydeco Crossroads project has uplifted in the past, featured accordion and singing, as well as electric bass, rambunctious drumming and persistent washboard playing — Ardoin identified the washboard player as his own son, Sean David Ardoin. He also let the crowd know that the band had driven to Camden from Lake Charles, Louisiana in the last two days.

The sun was setting, the air was muggy, but the music had the Marina Stage crowd on their feet. The band’s set featured a mix of high-energy zydeco tunes with touches of soul and hard-hitting rock, all from Ardoin’s past albums. His last release was 2018’s Kreole Rock and Soul, for which he received two Grammy nominations.

Listen back to the performance and check out a gallery of photos below.

Setlist:
In Here Tonite
Do My Thing
Overdosed
Keep on Moving
Kick Rocks
Abracadabra
In It for a Minute
Zydeco Happy
Bayou Man
Mama