Have you ever had one of those moments where you go to your favorite
restaurant and instead of ordering the usual you decide to get crazy
and order something that has the word new next too it? Of
course once you make your decision on what new and exciting dish to get
comes the wait until the food is brought to the table. Now during that
wait is the time when you start to wonder if you should have stuck with the
usual and then by the time the food gets to the table you are feeling a
little less than confident which means that regardless of the quality of the
meal you are feeling critical before you take the first bite.
In a lot of ways that sums up my Lady Sovereign experience. I had
originally wanted to attend the Cursive show down the road but given that
they were the usual for me I decided to go with the new item on the menu and
just like what I described above came the block of time that I had to wait
for the show. Naturally during that period I became a little uneasy
about not purchasing tickets to see Cursive and it was all pretty much
because I felt like I was watching Lady Sov rapidly devolve from being an
artist to more of a character. Normally I wouldn't really care about
this but I have been to enough shows to see that characters draw people who
could care less about the music and are just interested in seeing someone
prance around.
This was pretty much the case last night in Houston. There were 12
year-olds, a cowboy, families, frat boys and a surprisingly few amount of
indie kids (they were probably watching Cursive). The doors of the
Meridian, the place that claims to never make anyone wait in line, opened at
nine instead of seven because the opener, Young Love, arrived at seven and
somehow didn't manage to get ready to play until ten. The indie kids
that were there had an obvious look of disapproval on their faces but the
random kids and families didn't seem to mind at all because they were just
there for the theatrics, not the music, of Lady Sov.
So despite having my doubt that the show would be stellar fueled by the
presence an awkward crowd and an overly long delay I was still holding out
that the star of the show would come out and make up for it all; let's just
say the biggest midget in the game has a ways to go before that becomes a
realistic expectation.
- Young Love -
Outside of the fact that this band confusingly stared at their equipment
with little flashlights for over an hour I thought their dance pop worked
well in getting the crowd loosened up from an extended wait out in the cold.
On the other hand I am completely confused as to why the venue did not have
them listed on their website as an opener (they are with her for the whole
tour) and why Lady Sov didn't bother to mention them or the reasons for the
show starting when it should have been over. Weird.
Their
Myspace has a couple of nice songs that are
worth checking out but Good Charlotte is in their "Top 24" so you will have
to decide for yourself if that is something you want to associate yourself
with.
- Lady Sovereign -
I'll admit that for about the length of the opener I thought that maybe she
was going to pull off a performance worth raving about. Her band,
which is a DJ, a drummer and a bass player, came out on stage at different
times throughout the lengthy instrumental jam and immediately I thought it
was impressive that she allowed them to set the pace for the show, it was
just too bad that she couldn't sustain it. The entire performance felt
rushed and while it may have been because she was still suffering from a
chest cold I really think that she could have done something a little
different than repeating the process of a song followed up by adolescent
facial expressions and asking people if they had "bought her album."
On the bright side songs like Pretty Vacant and Public Warning
were performed with the intensity that I had hoped would fill the entire set
and on Love Me Or Hate Me, the one that the tiny girls standing next
to me knew, the crowd felt like the one I hoped would be there. Maybe
it's just me but her music is fun and deserves to be in an environment full
of people are more interested in having a good time and not one where people
go crazy just because side ponytails have a chance of making a comeback.
If you ever want to see her live then now is the time to do it since she
will inevitably be huge and the crowds are just going to get bigger and more
annoying. If you can't get out to see her then just wait a few
years and hope that she matures to the point where every show is explosive
with as much energy as should be expected from her.
-
John Laird -
Unless
otherwise expressly stated, all text in this blog and any
related pages, including the blog's archives, is licensed by
John Laird under a
Creative Commons License.
