ALL HEARTS!

On Friday the 1st of October, the two founding members and major contributing columnist of Shiny & New went on a very special field trip to see Queen Kelis at the Shepherds Bush Empire in London. It was a 1 hour set with only two major breaks (one after the intro and one before the encore) and as far as we’re concerned was one of the shortest but tightest and sweetest pop sets we’ve ever seen.

Dressed head to toe in luminescent muscle-covered lycra, Kelis proceeded to control the dancefloor for 60 sweaty minutes taking us on a cosmic journey through her back catalogue and latest (sparkling) album. Now, let us get something out of the way right off the bat, the lady is fierce. Not in the watered down, smalltown-gayboy-outside-a-regional-branch-of-H&M-clicking-his-fingers-at-his-overweight-faghag-as-she-‘tells-it-like-it-is’-about-her-oaf-of-a-boyfriend’s-saggy-dick sense of the word. No, in the we-are-in-the-presence-of-a-goddess sense of the word.

Not a trained or accomplished dancer, Ms. Jones née Rogers nevertheless strutted, writhed, waved, shaked, shimmied and smiled in the most euphoria-inducing way. And her vocals! Often they are described as overly weak or husky, but live they were on point! Always perfectly in tune, powerful, expressive and with an impressive range (despite mic probs).

The set itself with its continuous, workout/club-style mix, was perfectly suited to the material and the lady herself showed incredible stamina, not faltering or flagging once despite a gruelling nonstop hour with no backing dancers or singers to take the reigns and no costume changes or water breaks.

The set was very reliant on current or recent material, as some detractors have pointed out, but that’s to be expected when an artist tours to support an album, and frankly shows the strength of the work in question that almost every single track from it could be played live. And what a treat for the fans! Not just the modern classic, “Trick Me”, as a final song, but also the much underrated and neglected masterpieces “Get Along With You” and “Young Fresh ‘n’ New”, paired with the much-loved “Millionaire” and incredible “Holiday/Milkshake” fan-made mashup!

Kelis has said right from the start that this album was all about making her fans and listeners sweat and sweat is what we did in ‘lovely’ West London of a Friday night. It was a pleasure and a brilliant gig. Below is a (mostly correct) setlist:

1. “Scream”
2. “22nd Century”
3. “Home”
4. “Emancipate”
5. “Brave”
6. “Spaceship”
7. “Lil’ Star (Remix)”
8. “Young Fresh ‘n’ New”
9. “4th of July (Fireworks)”
10. “Millionaire”
11. “Holiday/Milkshake”
12. “Sign Your Name”
13. “Get Along With You”
14. “Acapella”
15. “Song for the Baby”
16. “Trick Me”