I’ll be the first to admit, Elly Jackson had me fooled for a while but then again you probably were too. With her flaming ginger quiff, tendency for eighties revivalism and wildly popular brand of electro pop, the La Roux project holds all the markings of one in which its members have aimed to become popstars. Not popstars in the ‘had a hit record but no personality’ sense of the word. A fully fledged keep your own chimpanzee, make a sex book, set your boobs on fire popstar.
Dan Black knows what I mean. Arriving on stage wearing a neon and black skintight lycra concoction he shamelessly endeavours to catch the audience’s attention. Having originally turned heads in the blogosphere with his infectious Notorious BIG remix ‘HPNTZ’, the same levels of effervescent inventiveness are on show throughout his support slot. On tracks such as ‘U + Me’, ‘Alone’ and ‘Yours’ the trick works to a tee. The set suffers however, when Black swings towards sentimentality with the guffaw inducing ‘I Love Life’ serving as a notable lowlight. Still with a persona almost as searing as his stage costume Black pulls off his 21st century disco champ moniker with aplomb.
The same can’t be said for the opening sequence of La Roux’s headline slot at the Roundhouse. Sporting a sliver glitter face tattoo and with the rest of her band mates carefully positioned to open up the centre stage, Jackson shockingly wilts in the limelight. Clutching her microphone stand for dear life and fumbling through opening gambit ‘Tigerlily’, ‘Quicksand’ arrives in unwittingly ironic fashion. Luckily enough for La Roux though, Jackson’s lack of charisma is compensated for by the duo’s consistency in writing hook laden hit after hook laden hit.
It’s an undeniably strange combination of cold synth chords and intense falsetto vocals but time after time it sees a crowd keen for some Saturday night revelry bopping along in unison. Indeed one over-enthusiastic audience member’s hip-swinging amsuses Jackson enough for her to pass comment on the “guy on the balcony going round dancing really badly”.
The ‘Colourless Colour’ that follows finally sees all components of the chart topping machine click into motion and with ‘Bulletproof’ and ‘In For The Kill’ still to follow, one mans ill advised boogie is another’s prescient intervention. “This time baby I’ll be bulletproof”, sings a shrill Jackson and this time you get the impression she means it. La Roux’s performance tonight might not have been on a par with other tightly drilled pop divas but then again this ragtag band aren’t the latest output on a production line, they’re naïve, unschooled and all the more exciting for it.
Dan Black knows what I mean. Arriving on stage wearing a neon and black skintight lycra concoction he shamelessly endeavours to catch the audience’s attention. Having originally turned heads in the blogosphere with his infectious Notorious BIG remix ‘HPNTZ’, the same levels of effervescent inventiveness are on show throughout his support slot. On tracks such as ‘U + Me’, ‘Alone’ and ‘Yours’ the trick works to a tee. The set suffers however, when Black swings towards sentimentality with the guffaw inducing ‘I Love Life’ serving as a notable lowlight. Still with a persona almost as searing as his stage costume Black pulls off his 21st century disco champ moniker with aplomb.
The same can’t be said for the opening sequence of La Roux’s headline slot at the Roundhouse. Sporting a sliver glitter face tattoo and with the rest of her band mates carefully positioned to open up the centre stage, Jackson shockingly wilts in the limelight. Clutching her microphone stand for dear life and fumbling through opening gambit ‘Tigerlily’, ‘Quicksand’ arrives in unwittingly ironic fashion. Luckily enough for La Roux though, Jackson’s lack of charisma is compensated for by the duo’s consistency in writing hook laden hit after hook laden hit.
It’s an undeniably strange combination of cold synth chords and intense falsetto vocals but time after time it sees a crowd keen for some Saturday night revelry bopping along in unison. Indeed one over-enthusiastic audience member’s hip-swinging amsuses Jackson enough for her to pass comment on the “guy on the balcony going round dancing really badly”.
The ‘Colourless Colour’ that follows finally sees all components of the chart topping machine click into motion and with ‘Bulletproof’ and ‘In For The Kill’ still to follow, one mans ill advised boogie is another’s prescient intervention. “This time baby I’ll be bulletproof”, sings a shrill Jackson and this time you get the impression she means it. La Roux’s performance tonight might not have been on a par with other tightly drilled pop divas but then again this ragtag band aren’t the latest output on a production line, they’re naïve, unschooled and all the more exciting for it.
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