For a good time call Elle!
Tuesday night in Leeds and the O2 Academy is sweaty, hot and packed to the rafters for a sold out James Bay concert, but first the happy throng of mostly females between the ages of 16-30 are watching Elle King. Elle is promoting her album 'Love Stuff', its a broad collection of styles both hell raising and softer country folk fillers, and having reviewed the album for subba-cultcha earlier in the year I'm keen to see her perform it live.
King arrives on stage with drink in hand, a curvy figure crammed into black jeans and a tight sweatshirt style zipped top, bouncy blonde hair and a big smile, she's keen to get the party started and her band look slightly apprehensive about exactly what she might do or say next. She's not an American Sweetheart, I've said before and this is a line from one of her tunes, her Tshirts however, tell the real story 'For a good time call Elle' is emblazoned across them.
Thats exactly what Elle King is about, she's a party girl through and through, like the slightly drunk older bridesmaid at a wedding singing Karaoke with the band, like the mate who goes to the bar and brings back 12 shots to keep the party going, she won't rest till everyone is having a good time and her inbetween song banter is all about that.
At one point she even said that she might get kicked off the tour with only a few dates left to go, perhaps James Bay can't handle a raunchy hell raising rock chick on the bus. The rescheduled date tonight is sandwiched between some Irish shows and perhaps King is continuing a party already started in Belfast the previous night. They are due to go back to Dublin tomorrow!
King's voice is her key strength and her gravelly whiskysoaked vocals hit all the right spots with ease and with little apparent effort. Those are some really powerful pipes, she is stood about two foot away from the mike and that voice can be heard all the way to the underground bar below the venue.
King alternates between playing acoustic guitar and standing with drink in hand singing with passion and emotion. Three songs in and she pulls out a banjo, not your regular american singer songwriter instrument, but King is highly proficient and uses it to compose some of her songs. She wields it like a broadsword and the room is suddenly transformed into a beer swilling hoedown festival, shrieks of 'hell yeah' from the few males in the audience spurs her on, and the rocker flicks that bleach blonde hair across her face with a cheshire cat like grin smiling underneath.
We get the intro to hit single 'Exs and Ohs' as “This is my slut song” a story about a years worth of relationships with the hookline of “They always wanna come but they never wanna leave”. The party girl excels in drawing out smiles from the whole audience, even more so when she changes the words of the Beatles cover Oh Darlin', to Fucking Darlin'. She had described the song previously as her all time favourite track and despite the word change its a classic tune to fit her strong 'Joplinesque' style.
Oh Darlin' is the precurser to tonights final stomper and according to King “When the clock strikes twelve we're all going to hell”, like some crazy halloween Cinderella story, 'Elle' the much tattooed rock star brings this party to a close.
At an Elle King gig you are going to be drunk, screaming hell yeah whether you went out to party or not, and whilst she didn't show all the different textures displayed on her album, everyone who attended now knows that if you need a good time then you better call Elle.
