LIVE REVIEW

Lykke Li @ The El Rey Theatre, Los Angeles Ca.

By: Gian Erguiza - June, 2008

“Enough of these ballads, I know you guys want to dance!” exclaimed, the indie Swedish songstress who played to an ever so enthusiastic crowd at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles. It was a few songs into her set before she muttered any words to the crowd and I’m guessing she was waiting for the right moment to mutter words to encourage the ever so jaded crowd of Los Angeles to move. “You guys are real quiet tonight,” Lykke says on the microphone, “C’mon people, let me hear you, let’s dance!” She demanded to which the crowd responded with a warm response.

Ms. Lykke Li is new to me. When I heard “Youth Novels” for the first time, I was quickly drawn to it with ears wide open. I felt the honesty in her voice and felt the intensity of her music. With so many artists now plaguing the music scene looking for their ‘big break,’ Lykke is different and most certainly oven fresh. The intent of her music is heartfelt and believable and standing there watching her dance her way in and out of the songs, just made it that much more believable. The energy that she and the band radiated, eminated through the crowd and man was the hipster, cool kids crowd loving and eating up every single moment of the performance.

I’m not sure of the title of the first song she drew breathe on but it quickly mesmerized the crowd to a murmur which in turn set the tone for the rest of her performance. “Let it fall” was the track that started the fun and it sounded somewhat different from the album, almost improvised of some sort. Some of the other songs that rocked the crowd were “Window blues,” “Dance, Dance, Dance,” and “Little Bit.”

Of course, “Little bit” got the most response from the crowd. That song is also the very first song I heard from Lykke and is the song that made me want to listen to the rest of her work. I’m glad that song caught my attention. When she sang “Little bit,” I was so happy to be there at that moment in time enjoying the moment with the crowd. That song made my night and the trip down to Los Angeles all worth my while. “Breaking it up,” also sounded terrific with the whole band on background vocals and Lykke, leading the way with her signature voice.

Headliner, El perro del mar, also came out onstage to sing a song with Lykke and the band and the harmonies were completely awesome. Too bad I don’t know the name of the song but those two made the song immaculate with their beautiful voices. Let’s not forget about the band either, the boys in the band were absolutely great and did an awesome job making music that night.

The last song of the night, “I’m good, I’m gone,” sounded absolutely terrific and sounded way better live than on record. I just saw the video for this song as well so I was pretty stoked to hear it live and better. Of course, Lykke thanked the crowd for the support and went on her way.

All in all, I was impressed and that’s a hard thing to do. I thought her performance was not the greatest on earth but it was definitely fun and I had a good time. If you get the chance to catch Lykke Li live, you should. It would be instrumental to you having a good time watching a live band.

On other notes, I didn’t stick around for El Perro Del Mar nor did I see the opener. I got there when the opener was on her last song. I had to go since I had an early schedule the next day and already had a beating of a day. I’m pretty sure I’ll catch El Perro Del Mar time anyways so I decided to skip on out and call it a night.

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