Two hearts with accurate devotions, what are feelings without emotion?
- La Roux // In For The Kill [US Version]
I should have known I was a lesbian when I realized how much I wanted to have sex with Elly Jackson from La Roux.
Sorry this is so long and not under a cut :(
La Roux / The Fonda Theatre / April 18, 2013
Where and how do I begin? I’ve never gone to a concert before, and I was a bit hesitant to go to this one because I didn’t have anyone to go with, and I was afraid of going alone (because going alone = lameness LOL). I bought my ticket anyway (floor) about fifteen minutes after they went on sale. I bought my bus tickets home from Santa Cruz about a week earlier, so I told myself I HAD to go. It turns out my brother was also interested in going, so I bought a ticket for him, too, a week later. There were only balcony tickets left for him :(
Anyway, so the entire time leading up to this concert I was extremely anxious and agitated because I didn’t know what to expect. Or rather, I had too many expectations (not for the music, which was strange) about my own behaviour. And my brother and I running around Hollywood to get in line for the doors opening didn’t help either haha.
So we arrived in Hollywood at exactly 7:30 pm. Doors opened at 8, so we just stood in line. Immediately this security guard came up and looked at our tickets and explained that we couldn’t be together cuz of our tickets. Okay, whatever, no big deal, I thought. And then another girl came by asking if we were gonna be drinking tonight. I said no because I’m a good kid (well I’m 20 and my brother’s 15). HAHA but I said to my brother that it would’ve been interesting if I said yes. We waited. On the wall of another building, above the theatre entrance, there was a projection of the stage/lights and we looked at it until the line started moving. There were security guards patting us down, but the guard did a pretty half-assed job with me. He sort of poked my jacket and said I could go.
Inside was dark. There were electric candle lights on the wall and everything was very brown and yellow. It looked like the interior design was fashionable a few decades back. I was reminded of the Hyperion Hotel in the second season of Angel when they first moved in. There was a bar facing the entrance. My brother left to go upstairs and I went to the bathroom and then onto the floor. It was already quickly filling up :( I was probably in the 5-6th row and standing behind a lot of tall men. Luckily two of the tallest left to go to the right side soon. And then we waited. It was boring. I felt excessively stupid for wearing a jacket because it got really hot really quickly. The tech guy checked the bass twice, the guitar, and William’s sticks, mic, light, and drums. He also set towels down. This guy to my left periodically yelled out “ELLY!!!!!!!! ELLY I LOVE YOU!!!!!” (because it was taking forever) and I laughed. I also thought that if guys think Elly Jackson is attractive, maybe I shouldn’t give up all hope either and be “culturally” coerced into saying that I’m a lesbian b/c of people’s this or that mentality at UCSC.
FINALLY it was 9:25 and Mickey, William, and two other band members (I don’t think Mikey was present, but I could be wrong) came onto the stage to deafening cheers while Skream’s remix of In For The Kill played overhead. I screamed too. I looked at William first because I’m kind of fascinated by how he looks and DEFINITELY HOW HE PLAYS DRUMS. So fluid and sensual (LOL this word). Back to In For The Kill: This remix sounds AMAZING live and blasted. Pretty damn orgasmic. The floor rumbled. And then I heard singing. It sounded…strange. I mean this in both a good and bad way. Elly Jackson hit all the right notes and pitches, but her voice sounded squeaky and little-girl-like. It’s okay though, because I think she really practiced this time with hitting all the right pitches/notes, like I said. Actually, I rewatched the two short videos I took of Quicksand and Kiss and Not Tell and her voice sounded normal. I guess it was just me. She came onto the stage from the left behind William and WE ALL SCREAMED. It was so loud.
And Elly Jackson….man….she is so sexy. She’s so much hotter and more good-looking in real life. My hands were shaking and I was having trouble breathing. And her hair. It looks so much classier and slicker and more wonderful than her quiff. I think she slimmed down a bit compared to the pictures from 2011, but I like her no matter what her weight may be. There’s one thing I wanted to point out, and it’s her smile. I used to think that her smile looked kind of awkward in pictures, but no. It’s not. Awkward smile=charming smile in real life. Same with her passionate facial expressions. Sexy x100000000. Also, Elly Jackson really is a charismatic frontwoman. She frequently went to the right (they had their hands up more I noticed) and the left and she did touch a few people’s hands. They were kind of far away, too. There was maybe three feet of a gap between the edge of the stage to the barrier. Of course the audience were leaning forward, but I still thought that was really nice of her. And (maybe this isn’t true, maybe it is, maybe everyone experiences this) I felt like she looked at me twice. I probably looked high with my mouth open in ~pleasure~ HAHAHAHAokno (well maybe. I could smell weed everywhere and if one could get high off the fumes, then I was definitely tiny bit high then). She also didn’t neglect the people in the balcony. She pointed at them and looked up at them too. And her awkward skippy dance was so endearing. She did that a lot, and she also wiggled around too. You shake those hips.
I have to say that I couldn’t really hear anything Elly said to the audience except something like “It’s good to see you all again”, something about smiles, and when the guy from the left yelled “I LOVE YOU ELLY!!!!” she heard and said “I love you all!” or something similar and we all screamed again. Or I screamed.
After In For The Kill (I sang….I sang…..for real. So proud of myself) was Colourless Colour, and I was mildly surprised that it was met with quite a lot of cheers (I was under the impression that people were only familiar with the singles..guess not). I sang through that song too. AND THEN IT WAS QUICKSAND, my favourite. And then she talked to us a little bit and introduced a new song, which was Kiss and Not Tell. It sounded pretty good, but everything sounded pretty good. I liked that one and Sexotheque (which was next, I think) the most out of the four-ish new songs they performed. Elly: He’s at the sexotheque~ *smirk*
Unfortunately after this I don’t remember the order of the setlist. All I know is that they performed every single song from their first album live, even Growing Pains (actually I think this was after Sexotheque). WAIT NO. SORRY. Obviously I’m not a ~true La Roux fan~ because I didn’t notice that they didn’t play Reflections are Protection and Armour Love. SORRYYYYYY. During one song, I remember Elly started smiling and motioned for us to smile too. It was too cute. After a while, I guess predictably, people started yelling for Bulletproof. But don’t worry, because about two songs between then and the end of the concert completely blew me away. Four, if you count Cover My Eyes and As If By Magic.
But I want to talk about I’m Not Your Toy. The guitarist switched to the electronic drums during this song (wait. I’m not entirely sure if he switched during I’m Not Your Toy or Tigerlily D: sorry), and he plays super loud, super confident, and his pulse is super exact. He’s more fun to watch than William, I think. I’m Not Your Toy was really energetic and I sang and got the lyrics mixed up (the “it’s all false love and affection/you don’t want me you just like the attention” part.) The audience was jumping and the energy within the theatre was uncontainable. Also I think the air conditioning blasted us a rather generous amount (not saying much lol) of cool air during this song. Appropriate, since this song is summery hehe.
And then Tigerlily happened. Wow. I personally don’t really like this song compared to the other singles, but I was completely FLOORED with the performance and light show. The middle section with the creeper voice (Elly Jackson’s DAD HAHAHAHA) playing overhead was the performance highlight of the entire show. The strobe lights flashed on and off very quickly to the beat of the percussion (it may’ve been the guitarist playing the electronic drums at this point, but I’m mixed up and can’t say for sure) and the background was entirely black I think. Elly Jackson stood in the center, unmoving, and the entire effect was…hmmm…it was amazing. I can’t seem to express how I felt any better. It felt violent, like anger was simmering just below the surface of each note and beat. It also gave the effect of very fast movement, like maybe a person pursuing something/someone with the help of a car. Ok it reminded me A LOT of Sin City, actually.
Once again, I don’t remember the exact order of the setlist, but at about 10:15, Elly Jackson thanked the audience and all five live band members left the stage. And then people were screaming for Bulletproof and predictably they came back onstage. Oh man. William, I love you too. I love your style. Have I mentioned how much I love the live arrangement of Bulletproof? Proof that Elly Jackson and Ben Langmaid made/make (I dunno, and she didn’t mention any information about the new album) a killer songwriting team because can a perfect song get any better? Yes, it can. Actually there are two arrangements: one is this, the one performed tonight, with just an extended intro, and the other one has both the extended intro and middle with Elly playing a percussion part for ten measures (I think it’s ten. I counted before lol). The latter is my favorite, but I’m not complaining. So anyway, literally everyone was screaming out the lyrics and I was torn between taking more (bad) pictures of Elly or just watching the last song. I did both. The background had little white spots on it in a diamond pattern. Why do I make useless observations lol. Elly Jackson looked really happy singing Bulletproof though.
I, however, was ecstatic. If I died, I would have no regrets (well, except for not being able to learn Swedish, but that’s like… a different mindset I have). Remember how I said I was nervous and didn’t know what to expect? I’m so happy I had these feelings of dread because my expectations were completely blown out of the water. I have not been this genuinely, completely, and utterly happy since… I graduated high school? Seems probable.
After Bulletproof ended, all five of them lined up and bowed. Elly bowed first, or somebody bowed first. I was just amused that they weren’t in sync. I was also kind of surprised that nobody introduced the bassist and guitarist. I think they should’ve been introduced. And then William smiled as they left.
I briefly mentioned earlier about Elly Jackson playing a percussion part in certain live performances of Bulletproof for another reason, and it’s her interaction with the live band members. When she plays the percussion part, she counts (or at least it seems like she does) the measures with William. Tonight, she didn’t interact with anyone except Mickey, and I thought it was… cute. Not the word I’m looking for, but I can’t think of another better word. I’ve performed a lot before, and usually in all of the various performances, when I make eye contact with other group members, we don’t smile at each other. Elly and Mickey did, and it was like awwwwwww they’re having fun too. They’re relaxed enough and know the music well enough to do more than acknowledge each other and what they’re contributing to the live music (what I always felt).
ONE FINAL THING. In my opinion, this might be worth your reading the entire recount :P If you did, THANK YOU LOLOLOL Elly Jackson held her mic with her right hand exclusively, and with her left, she did five things: help hold the mic, put her hand on her chest, put her hand sort of between her legs (omg!!! I know), and….. use her fingers to either play air guitar (fretboard, not the strumming) or mime the come hither gesture (actually I think she was trying to get us to scream louder, but it looked like something else). ANYWAY, I died. Yeah, I was imagining those fingers elsewhere doing the same movements. (I have a thing with hands and fingers, and her hands looked damn fine from where I was standing.)
