Look, people are going to shoot me for this I'm sure. But Lily Allen? Okay, she's adorable. I get that. And I get that she's personable. Well, let's not say 'personable' so much as just such a spitfire you can't help but be utterly intrigued and drawn to her. Sure, she's cool, she's real. I can dig it. And that "Smile" song was pretty good before it got annoyingly overplayed. Not my top 'thing' but I get it. You know, girl takes on world, speaks her mind, says what we all want to anyhow. Got it.









Now I go to see her show, and okay, I was only there for a little bit of it, and maybe I wasn't all that much in the mood for what she had to offer, but nonetheless... what? It was different. Maybe that's simply the appeal. Her backup band is full of, you know, token men. You get the feeling they're the submissive ones. She has a horn section. That's cool. She wore oversized and shapeless nearly hip-hop style clothing (quite unlike her cutesy thrift-store-dress style you often see), which was either cool for its unexpectedness, or terrible for its frumpiness. I haven't decided which. Her voice, speaking and singing, is adorable. So what's the problem then? I don't know! I'm confounded, but something here totally didn't add up for me. Maybe because she simply paced the stage and muddled out her songs? Something wasn't very engaging about watching her on stage. I know nearly everyone in the room disagrees with me. I'm probably just insane. But, sorry, I just wasn't gonna bite on this one. I gave her three songs to impress me and she didn't do it. So off I went to Richards to see Badly Drawn Boy.











I was a bit pensive about this one too. Last time I saw BDB play, he spent half the show with his back to the crowd, wanking off on jammy extended solos that dragged each song out to ten minutes. Seriously, I think he played eight songs in his entire set that night and managed to make it last two hours. But, here was a bit different. Most of what I saw was him at the piano, and darn it all, he actually spoke to the audience. A lot. He told them things. He didn't look anyone in the eye and he still hid deftly under a big wooly toque, but his voice rang clear and he interacted to a degree. This was more my pace this night - but while it was a marked improvement over the previous show of his, I still found myself drifting before long.







Not the best night for shows, but those attending both seemed to be enjoying themselves, so who am I to judge?

Elsewhere

By Andy Scheffler
Photos : Andy Scheffler
Published : April, 2007.