Proving that it's hard these days to put on a gimmicky night without the blessing-and-curse stamp of a large corporation, Koko tonight played host to the first Xbox My Gig night, where a competition winner gets £50K to put on their dream gig.
We won't devote too many column inches to the fantastic electro-popstrels CSS, on account of them having gobbled up enough already. Aside from their catsuits and such and such, they fill the stage with their good-looking Brazilian staff, lots of balloons and a great party; leadsinger Lovefoxx struts and jumps around with the meanest quiff in Camden, and if you hadn't been in the venue an hour before you might just wonder if she is the coolest woman in pop.
Instead let's talk about joyful support act Florence Mary Leontine Welch, aka Florence and the Machine. If CSS fill you with a nice warm feeling, Florence will likely chuck in a mild aneurism and whip up the temperature by ten degrees or so. She writes mean, vibrant pop songs about kisses and fists and bodily organs, and the primal spills out of her performances. She spins and dances like a child, with a high-neck and a short hem and a fringe swept to one side. When she hits the drum next to her, she becomes it, and most importantly, she is blessed with a huge voice that soars around you. We're not short of female artists who can actually sing, but it's not enough to be able to hit the top note (we're not in an episode of The X-Factor, after all). 'The dog days are over', she sings ecstatically, and anyone who fails to pick up on the joy of the moment is cynical indeed.
Go and see her and be part of it, or harder, be a sideline to it. She'll pick up the detached few in the room and politely elbow them to one side. One look at her gold-drenched, expressive, shiny, tiny hands should do it. This girl is going places.
Image from jbeckers' photostream under the Creative Commons Licence.
