Lykke Li @ the Middle East 5/9, (El Perro Del Mar too)
Lykke flared her elbows, dropped her shoulders, and bounced in cramped space - alternating between dancing and slamming cymbals with her single drum stick. Her dancing borders on foolish, but is salvaged and made into a jealousy inducing spectacle by her supreme confidence. And the effect her confidence has on her stage performance cannot be understated.
Rooted in her powerful voice - a voice that is able to achieve an almost hollow, desperate sound - that captures pain, regret, exuberance, and doubt; one can easily see where she finds the strength to perform as she does. It’s even more endearing because she is not prototypically pretty. Her beauty in large portion is drawn from her confidence. I’ve described her as a the perfect blend of pop star because she’s pretty but not too pretty, thin but healthy looking, she dances spontaneously - as if she was alone in her room. All of these features allow women to embrace Lykke without feeling threatened or lesser. As for guys, her magnetism makes her desirable as a buddy and her realistic beauty makes her a legitimate albeit unrealistic object of affection (get it? cause Bjorn produced her album). She was what El Perro Del Mar wasn’t with her alcoholic like mannerisms that didn’t seem right, but demand your unmoving gaze. In fact, if it wasn’t for Lykke Li’s duets with El Perro Del Mar she may have lost more than half of the audience. Ultimately, I felt rather bad for the headlining Mar because she deserved more attention than she received.
It was easy to see the audience, myself included, ate up Lykke’s aesthetics and sound. By the time Lykke substituted saxophone with kazoo during Dance Dance Dance (which she opened with) the crowd was sold. From then on we lapped it up like a long tongued dog in the summer heat. Dancing was abundant, swaying/bouncing was prevalent, and head bobbing was certain.
The rest of Lykke’s set mixed in tracks from the Little Bit EP and Youth Novels (not for sale unfortunately) with good result. El Perro Del Mar and her drummer who is almost the spitting image of Ron Burgandy joined Lykke and her band for a couple songs. Her recorded tracks are pretty faithfully recreated on stage (other than the impromptu kazoo) so if you listen to the album you know what you’re getting into.
Go see/listen to Lykke Li (and stay for El Perro Del Mar).
Lykke Li’s Little Bit EP is out now through LL Recordings. Buy.
US Tour Dates:
May 19 2008 - El Rey w/ El Perro del Mar, Los Angeles
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