So yes,I went to to Robyn.
She was here as part of the Very Very Overpriced V Fest,but tickets for her one-night-only side show were cheap,and I had read a couple good reviews of her US tour-and most of all,her recent album was a really good pop record.A brief chat about that-everyone knows Robyn as the girl who sang that one huge song in the 90s (Show me Love),so she relaunched herself with a self-titled album wanting to be known for more than just a one-hit wonder.You get essentially 3 types in the Robyn album-first few tunes are the really cheesy pop ones where she continually boasts to being someone "not to be messed with" and mafia things like that-usually I'd sooner set myself on fire than admit to enjoying songs like these,but take a listen to "Konichiwa Bitches" or "Bum like you" and you might see they're nothing short of fun-completely unpretentious,silly-catchy and without any "featuring Timbaland" gimmicks.Then you get the techno-heavy club songs and the ballads,both reasserting the fact that this is one good pop album.
Okay,so a quick Wiki search tells me she apparently has 3 other albums preceding Robyn-for the purpose of this gig review,we'll assume they were all crap and better left ignored.
Opening for her was someone called China,I sat outside when "China" performed because there's simply no way anyone can ever,ever,ever justify naming their band "China" (plus it was all stuffy inside),then a lost-looking blonde by the name of Paris Wells took the stage and sang a couple of her own songs (all hip-hop) before doing covers of The Gossip's Standing in the Way of Control and Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side.
While waiting outside,we met a hilarious bunch of people in their late twenties-apparently earlier on they bought a couple champagne bottles and put the record on loop all day,so one of them went "I fucking hate Robyn" and another was drunk off her fucking head.The third one was babbling on about the most random things,at one point going "The people here tonight don't look like they're here for Robyn",staring around the room once again he goes "from the way they dress,I can see they've either mistaken Robyn for Nickelback,or Bardot".True enough,you either had your orange-tanned Barbie types or full-on goth types black top-to-toe with piercings everywhere.Then there were others like me who fell in neither category,too lazy to wear anything nice.
Finally,after two hundred light years-Robyn appeared to a long round of applause,small and cute as a bunny,smiling like a kid.Accompanying here was a keyboard and guitar,and two complete drum sets (along with one tiny electric toy drum Robyn bashed to make boppy bongo sounds)-she of course plunged into "Konichiwa Bitches" instantly,to which everyone knew the words (no kidding,even me).People were screaming at the TOP of their voices,clinging on to every single syllable and Robyn jumped around and got her freak on in a dozen different ways.I have never seen anyone with energy like hers-given,I haven't been to too many gigs and the wildest one I've been to was 07s Red Hot Chili Peppers,which was a big-scale stadium gig with all kinds of giant speakers and light shows-to have Robyn bring audiences to that level of mania,with her small band and in this rat-hole of a venue,was one heck of an achievement.
She did a few covers,I think there was one ancient Roxette song and then there was Snoop's Sexual Eruption and Prince' Jack You Off (also on the album).She played an hour-long set,closing with "Show me Love" and a second rendition of "Be Mine" this time really emotional,it's amazing everyone knew the words to the bridge,when the song momentarily goes quiet and there's only Robyn miserably going "I saw you at the station,you had the arm around what's her name-she had that scarf I gave you...".That generally speaks to how cheesy the album is (On Konichiwa Bitches,she muses "I'm so very hot that when I rob your mansion,You ain't call the cops, you call the fire station") but she gets away with it,she's just so full of verve and mischief that I expect in few years she'll be as big as Britney (for all the right reasons) with big sold-out gigs all over.
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