All it takes is 30 minutes and seven songs to make one ass-kicking and ass-shaking good time. Ida Maria (pronounced E-dah) returned to New York tonight after her 2007 CMJ appearance. Since then, she's a pretty big deal in Europe with her Top 10 album, Fortress Round My Heart. Based on that slam-dunk album and her braggadocio, I put her on my Top 5 New Artists on the year. After seeing her live, she more than lived up to my expectations. Her set wasn't a marathon but a sprint of ferocity. She is THE rock goddess of 2009. As I always say on this space, "You have been warned."
The setlist:
- Morning Light
- Louie
- Queen of the World
- Keep Me Warm
- Stella
- I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked
- Oh My God
That picture above is when she started the show, looking stylish and put together. Now look at her at the end of her short set.
Ta-dah. Sweaty, wet and with smeared lipstick. Now, wouldn't you like to know what happened in-between?
Ida is one of those singers who becomes what she sings and has to leave everything on stage. Her songs are emotional confessions of pain and joy, thus her stage presence conveys all those mixed-up feelings. While she ended tired and drained, it was a slow build to the final two songs where she jumps around, screams, grabs people and knocks crap over. Heck, I think you would do the same thing with lyrics like "Hey, you're kinda sexy, bu you're not very special." That "Naked" song is one of my favorite tracks from last and was one of the Your New Favorite Songs on my old radio show. It's an anthem for random hook-ups and one night stands.
Her voice carries her performance as well, a mixture of Patti Smith, Joan Jett and PJ Harvey -- passionate and rough around the edges. Her appearance with her vintage go-go girl outfit with all the fringes is something all her own. When she bangs away on her guitar, she can barely keep still as is the music is taking over her. Even with the more soulful, down-tempo song, Keep Me Warm, she grabs the microphone and screams away her pain. More importantly, she has a blast on stage. She'll dance around and shake her ass to the crowd while having a good laugh at it.
I think what made the show for me was the final two songs, where she gets to unleash her inner Karen O. With "Oh My God" she pours water over her head and thrashes around on stage like a women possessed. Meanwhile, the crowd gets to scream along with her. It worked that the set was so short, because there were never any dull moments.
There's no doubt in my mind that her Norwegian powerhouse's success overseas will finds its way onto our shores. Fortress Round My Heart will get the major label treatment and everything that comes with it. So enjoy her now before you get sick of her.
I dug the opening act, Those Darlins from Tennessee, the land of questionable dental hygiene, illegal liquor making and dry-rub BBQ. They play an up-tempo style of hillbilly roots folk with songs about your mama and drunk driving. The fact that they are goofy on stage with those funny accents make them all the more endearing.
Ida was incredible. I have nothing to add to this excellently-written post about her. She has one of the best stage presences I've ever seen (Karen O included, and I'm a hardcore YYY fan), and let's hope she makes another jaunt to this hemisphere once "Fortress" is closer to release.
Those Darlins, on the other hand, I thought were, like Ida's tryst, not very special. Every song was exactly the same- simple guitar, slightly more intricate bass, harmonized-but-not-particularly-good vocals, and the stupidest-looking drummer I can think of. Considering I paid to see Ida Maria and their set was (in essence) free, I guess they were worth seeing... but if you tried to charge me a dollar to see their act separately, I would not have paid it.
Posted by: MC | January 16, 2009 at 03:09 PM
Those Darlins were great. Crowd wasn't their normal rowdy, good-time selves...but otherwise I thought they were charming! Not the best pairing of artists.
Posted by: Cale | January 16, 2009 at 04:42 PM