Robyn

The Fall concert juggernaut continued with Robyn last night at the Buckhead Theater. Kurt has been a good sport over the last few weeks going to shows with me that I know he really doesn't want to go to. Not that he dislikes Robyn, but I don't think she is his favorite. Indeed, before we left for the show he was very quiet, more quiet than he usually is, and finally I asked him if he didn't want to go, and he sort of sighed and said no. Of course, being the trooper he is, he went anyway. And by the end of the show, I think even he was impressed by Robyn's boundless energy and showmanship.

The newly remodeled Buckhead Theater (formerly The Roxy) was really beautiful. You can tell they really put a lot of thought into it. The venue has nice wide hallways and places to view the bands. We went upstairs and they had nice comfortable seats, with a good grade between them, so you always had a good vantage point. The only thing bad I have to say was that between acts, they were playing the music way too loud. To the point where I had a horrific headache before Robyn came on stage. Also, the mix for the two openers was horrifically muddy.

There were two opening bands, or artists as I should say, neither of which I had heard of prior. First up was Natalia Kills, which at first seemed like it was going to be a female DJ. Instead, it turned out to be a female singer with a DJ and two backup dancers. Kurt thought that with better production she could be good, but I didn't really hear anything other than a rather tepid mishmash of Lady Gaga/Ke$ha, etc. Plus, they looked like a tranny hooker version of Vanity 6. Mercifully, they only played about 5 songs.



The second act was Maluca. Again, at first, I thought it was merely a DJ. For about 15 minutes it was a male DJ playing a lot of Diplo-esque baile funk inspired dance music. It was fun and loud, and then a statuesque black woman with a 15 foot dreadlock ponytail came out and started singing, rapping, toasting, and daggering. Funny, a quick Google search on my iPhone showed that she is actually a Diplo protege, in the manner of M.I.A. and Santigold. I wasn't that impressed with her side of things, though I really enjoyed the music. She just doesn't have a standout persona like M.I.A. or Santigold. Perhaps with some more honing, she can be really good.

And this began the annoyingly long wait for the headlining act. Why it takes them 10 minutes between openers and then almost 45 minutes for Robyn I have no idea.

Once Robyn came out though it was a non-stop party. She played almost all her hits off of Robyn and Body Talk, and barely stopped to catch her breath. She had boundless energy and amazing showmanship. You can definitely tell she loves performing and really feeds off the energy of the crowd. There were almost too many highlights from the show, but here are a few that I could find on Youtube.

One of my favorite songs is her cover of the Teddybears' "Cobrastyle." Her performance got the crowd pumped and dancing.



Another crowd fave was "Dancing On My Own," which you could barely hear her over the crowd singing along.



And her classic dance track "With Every Heartbeat" nearly brought the house down.



But she saved her best surprise for last, coming out for the final encore and singing a medley/mashup of ABBA's "Dancing Queen" and her original hit song "Show Me Love." It was a perfect ending to an amazing show.



Unfortunately, this was the only clip of it I could find from Atlanta. Hopefully someone will post another more complete clip and I will substitute it later.

One thing I loved about the show last night was that it proved you don't need a bunch of ridiculous costume changes, back-up dancers, or any other type of spectacle to put on a great show. Robyn gave her all up on stage and in turn it fed the anticipation of the crowd. All these new singers need to check her out and take notes, understanding that it is about songcraft and dedication to performing. It was one of the best concerts I have seen in awhile, and one I will not soon forget.