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Robyn- Love Kills (live in Amsterdam)
I got to see Robyn for the 2nd time on Saturday, and while the show may not have been as incredible as the Philadelphia show in August, it was an excellent performance. The setlist was mostly similar to that show, with the obvious addition of Body Talk Part 2 material as well as Show Me Love to close out the concert. Love Kills was my favorite of the new songs performed, although Hang With Me turned into a much more epic song than I was expecting live and was also pretty excellent. I’m still partial to the acoustic version though, so that colors my view. We Dance To The Beat was mixed with pieces of Don’t Fucking Tell Me What To Do for an interlude that was interesting but dragged on about a minute too long. Still, Robyn deserves some time to catch her breath after the high energy show she puts on with minimal tricks and no back-up dancers, something I can’t see the other pop stars of the moment pulling off (Madonna could, and has, though. Exhibit A, Exhibit B) so I can’t fault her too much for drawing out that mix.
The performance of The Girl and the Robot was noticeably better than before, a definite highlight of the night and a great way to lead into Dancing On My Own. In My Eyes live was an improvement over the studio version, but it’s still not a song I think I’ll ever love. The new mix of Be Mine that’s performed live also desperately needs to be released somewhere, it’s a great reworking of the song that adds a new dimension of anger to the song and takes it to an entirely different place. I do hope Robyn starts performing Criminal Intent live since that’s one of my favorites and it was MIA. I also was a little disappointed that Indestructible didn’t end the show, but I assume Robyn is saving live performances of that for when the dance version comes out. It wouldn’t have fit the mood of this show as well as Show Me Love did though, since it was a perfect sing-along ending that sent everyone home on a high note.
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Robyn - “Hyberballad”
My day was turning into a giant bowl of shit, but now! Now! Now! It’s looking up.
(Thanks Max for the heads-up.)
I generally regard Bjork as an artist who’s impossible to cover, but Robyn manages to do a great job with Hyperballad. She sticks very close to the original, but since Hyperballad is a pretty perfect song, that’s for the best. The vocals are a bit thin at the beginning, but Robyn pulls it out, doesn’t let herself be overwhelmed by the orchestra, and hits the right tone for the song’s climax. It isn’t quite Bjork-good, but that’s such a high bar that there’s no shame in coming in just under it.
You know what would be nice? If Robyn performed this when I see her again in Amsterdam October 9th. (Yes, I’m seeing Tori Amos w/ an orchestra and Robyn in the same weekend. Try to contain your jealousy. I know it’s difficult.)
Source: teenageart
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Oh, did I forget to mention that we met Kelis and Robyn after the show? If you want to meet them, you just have to buy a CD at the show and you get a wristband for a post-show meet and greet. We had to wait about an hour and 15 minutes to meet them, although that was because they took the time to speak to everyone instead of doing a quick “sign and go”. After I told Kelis that I loved the show and that it was even better than the one at Santos’, I asked her if she was going to continue making dance music and “keep being the new Donna Summer”. Unfortunately, she gave a non-committal reply about having a lot of fun doing this tour and the CD but not knowing what she’ll do next. So if you don’t have her new album, go out and buy it, so she’ll be more inclined to keep going in this direction. Seriously, I’ll be so sad if she goes back to Rap/R and B. I also talked to Robyn briefly, who told me she knew a really cute dog named Hank. Funny enough, Imogen Heap told me her dad had a dog named Hank a few years back, so I guess it’s a popular dog name or something.
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Robyn- Dancing On My Own (live in Philadelphia)
The wait between Kelis and Robyn was a little over 45 minutes, but it felt like an eternity, half because of excitement and half because of exhaustion from dancing for the hour before. One entertaining aspect of the wait was a spectacularly hammered (seriously, she was wasted from 8-12 without another drink and barely seemed to sober up at all) girl molesting these two gay guys in front of her to the point that if the genders were reversed, she probably would’ve been arrested. They weren’t too happy about it but tolerated it with only a few “Help! Please!” comments or eye-rolls in the direction of me, my sister, and other people. So let’s all remember the golden rule people: only touch others the way you want to be touched and know when you’ve been politely turned down.
Robyn hit the stage running with a blistering performance of Fembot, and the crowd was insane with joy. If the crowd response to Kelis was great, this was overwhelming, and the energy didn’t let up for the entire set. As someone who likes Robyn, but didn’t see what made her so special to people, this performance made me see why she’s different from other pop stars. She owned the stage, dancing by herself with some moves that looked straight out of work-out videos but were oddly amazing. Her on-stage charisma and personality was something to behold. There was a tremendous performance of Cry When you Get Older (the best track on Body Talk part 1, although few people agree with me on that), which was followed by an amazing new version of Cobrastyle that handily trumped the studio version. Who’s That Girl was another highlight that Robyn put a ton of energy and emotion into.
The show had only a few minor flaws: the non-performance of Don’t Fucking Tell Me What To Do, where Robyn ate a banana and danced around instead of singing, which really should’ve been a video interlude while Robyn had a mid-set costume change (additionally the Konichiwa intro also should’ve been a video interlude), although that may have not been possible due to budget reasons. The light show was largely excellent, but when Robyn went downstage by the band, the lights tended to overwhelm and make her difficult to see. These flaws are minor though, and the main set was excellent, concluding with a new version of Be Mine that upped the anger and aggression in the song in place of the sadness of the original. I don’t think that this new version was better than the album’s, but it fit better into the set and was a perfect closer. The encore was unfortunately shorter than at other shows, with no Show Me Love or Hang With Me, both of which I had hoped to hear, but it did contain an epic rendition of With Every Heartbeat that ended the night perfectly. Robyn’s show was far better than I was expecting, and I will definitely be seeing her again when she tours for Body Talk parts 2/3.
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So last night, I saw the All Hearts Tour, and it was pretty amazing. I’m going to divide the review into two parts, one for Kelis and one for Robyn. Before getting to the main event, I’ll say a brief word about the openers. Far East Movement were high-energy and fun, with all of their songs fitting into the “All I Do Is Party” vein and good use of stage props like spaceman helmets and a monkey costume head, and were well-received by the early crowd. Dan Black was a bit less successful with a couple songs that were a little too slow to dance to even if they were still uptempo pop but was alright, and had a stage presence that came off as Jake Shears lite. Both had shorter sets than usual due to some sound difficulties, and they both did decently under poor conditions.
I had seen Kelis in New York in May, so I was expecting her show to be largely similar to that one. While this was the case, her stage presence had improved considerably and the changes she did make were all improvements. The show started with a modified version of Intro from Fleshtone, with Kelis having the crowd recite “The Dance Floor Pledge Of Allegiance” with her before concluding “because we control the dance floor…we control the dance floor” and launching into Emancipate. The band for the show was just Kelis, a drummer, and two DJs but the sound was still full and pounding. I have to take back what I said before about Kelis possibly being a dance diva who can’t dance, she was high energy and commanded the stage with some great moves. The entire show rested on her since the lights and other effects were unfortunately minimal (one of the show’s few flaws), but Kelis delivered and looked great in a ridiculous wig and shockingly short dress that showcased her great legs.
She performed every song off of her new album FleshTone, the majority of which got excellent crowd response. Of those songs, the highlights were Brave (which is unsurprising since it’s the album’s best song), 4th of July, and Scream, which is the new single and judging by the crowd response is a very good choice. The crowd was into the show, but there were two clear divides in the audience: people who were there mainly for Robyn vs. people there mainly for Kelis, with a majority there for Robyn, and fans of the older Kelis material vs. fans of the new stuff. Even if you were only there for the old stuff, there was still enough to love, with Get Along With You (the only slow song in the set), Millionaire, Trick Me, Little Star, and of course Milkshake (mashed up with Madonna’s Holiday for the first half and then reverting to its original form) all getting full performances. There was also an excellent medley of Bossy, Caught Out There, Young Fresh and New, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of These), and best of all the hook from Got Your Money, which was sadly missing from the May show. The only way it could’ve been improved was if Kelis threw in her bit from N.E.R.D.’s Truth Or Dare, one of my personal favorites even if it wasn’t a big hit. Another welcome change from the show in May was a cover of Sign Your Name by Terence Trent D’Arby, which Kelis sang very well and fit nicely into the show and tour theme but that few people in the crowd seemed to know. Her set ended with an acapella crowd sing-along to (what else?) Acapella and Kelis triumphantly danced her way off stage, leaving the crowd pumped up and ready for Robyn.
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Robyn- Hang With Me (acoustic)
I had wondered why this version was tagged as acoustic on Body Talk Volume 1, but yesterday Robyn revealed a new dance version of Hang With Me that’s the lead single off of Body Talk Volume 2. The new version isn’t bad, but it doesn’t come close to the greatness of this version, which doesn’t have Robyn’s achingly lovely vocal obscured by a repetitive synth beat and painfully basic drumming. There are also such great strings on this version that hearing the song without any trace of them is just maddening. Dance music with strings is some of the best dance music and if the new version had some pumped-up strings on it, I could probably forgive its other flaws, but no strings = no go. Maybe this song will be done twice a night on the tour in both its incarnations, a la Lady Gaga with Poker Face, so that fans of either can go home happy.
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PLUG ME IN AND FLIP SOME SWITCHES.
I love me some spectacle and dramatic excess, but sometimes it’s even better to see a pop performance that just relies on the beat, some strobe lights, and the charisma of the lead singer. And look how much fun she’s having because everything isn’t intensely choreographed and regimented! Take a note, other pop bitches.
Source: tylercoates
Kelis- Holiday/Milkshake
I just got tickets for me and my sister to see the Robyn/Kelis tour in Philly. Unlike most people on the internet, we’ll be there mainly for Kelis. (I like Robyn, but she’s hit-or-miss. Her new EP is half great, half meh) This ,along with Brave, was the highlight of her April NYC show. There’s bubbles and crowd sing-alongs and booty-shaking and I was pretty blissed out once that sample hit. My friend Andrew can attest that I was the first person in the crowd to recognize the Holiday sample, which is both awesome and totally lame (my recognizing it, not Holiday which is all awesome).
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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]Robyn -Fembot
Generally, I think Robyn is WAY overrated but this track is pretty perfect. “I’ve got some news for you/ fembots have feelings too” has been stuck in my head all day, and the second chorus is extremely fun to sing along to as well.
