Up until quite recently, I vaguely remembered Robyn from hearing her song “Show Me Love” some time ago and passing it off as another forgettable song by one of the many interchangeable female pop stars that have dominated the pop culture landscape since the dawn of the music video. I also remember seeing her getting “interviewed” by Wyatt Cenac on The Daily Show a couple years ago and getting the impression that she was pretty clueless and humorless. Needless to say, I went into 2010 with a pretty low opinion of her.
I heard that for the past couple years, she had more or less abandoned the prefabricated pop stylings of her early material in favor of working with artists with some serious indie cred such as Royksopp and The Knife. I decided to give her new “Body Talk” 3-part album an unbiased spin and found myself thoroughly enjoying the material. The music is still unabashedly full on pop, but there’s something non-pretentious and honest about the way Robyn delivers her newer music. Despite the fact that most of her songs are about being in, wanting to be in, getting out of, or regretting ending a relationship, I’m able to look past the banality of the lyrics and still get down with the music.
Still, I had reservations about her live show. Based on the small amount of intel I have gleaned from awful, terrible, not good mainstream pop stars like Katy Perry and her ilk, I braced myself for an obnoxious stage production big on eye candy and low on substance. Backup dancers, choreographed dancing, an excessively large band, and worst of all, lip synching. Fortunately, I was way off again. Robyn capped her band member limit with a totally manageable number: 4. 2 synth players, 2 drummers, and her. That was it. And they sounded really fucking good.
Included here is “Indestructible”, “Konichiwa Bitches”, and an extremely kick ass version of “Be Mine”.
Terminal 5 Nov. 10, 2010
Setlist
Fembot
Cry When You Get Older
Cobrastyle
Dancing on My Own
We Dance to the Beat/Don’t Fucking Tell Me What to Do
Love Kills
The Girl and the Robot
Indestructible
Dream On
With Every Heartbeat
Encore 1
U Should Know Better
Konichiwa Bitches
Hang With Me
Be Mine
Encore 2
Dancehall Queen
Dancing Queen
Show Me Love
Download: Be Mine (Live)
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Download: Indestructible (Live)
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Download: Konichiwa Bitches (Live)
[jwplayer config=”CustomPlayerAudio” file=”http://thesoundofindie.com/archive/2011/20110316/Robyn-Konichiwa-Bitches.mp3″]
