Just ahead of the release of her new album ‘Visions’, Canadian Claire Boucher (aka Grimes) plays a sold-out gig in London’s most famous pervy neighbourhood, Soho. Electric Banana’s Live Editor, Hannah Lendrum, pops along.
Performance
Grimes comes off like a latter-day electro magician, juggling microphones, laptops and keyboards to create an often perfect goth-pop soundscape that sounds like the work of way more than one woman. There are techno glitches and a couple of false starts – she could probably do with about 5 extra hands – but with apologies accompanied by the cutest smile of probably anyone ever, these are charming rather than annoying.
Setlist
Judging from the cheers, most of the crowd is here for the minor hits. ‘Vanessa’ is dark and danceable and goes down well, but the rest of the short set demonstrates better an unnatural vocal range and capacity for musical multi-tasking.
Crowd Interaction
At times it feels like Grimes is experimenting live on stage, and she looks as pleased as anyone in the crowd when she pulls it off. She doesn’t talk too much and skips off stage as soon as her set finishes, but Grimes is damn adorable and wins over a crowd of hipster hearts.
Image
She’s got the dance moves of a spaced out pixie and the dress sense of the coolest girl in junior school – drowning in an oversized Tupac t-shirt and knee-length tartan skirt with the messy plaits of a rock ‘n’ roll Pippi Longstocking, she has the unselfconsciously-cool-little-sister look down. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only person here that wants to be her.
Overall
Two LPs in, Grimes is finally hitting the ‘ones to watch’ lists over here. Tonight’s performance shows why – she is an enchanting and capable performer with a Tupac tshirt and a set full of potential hits. Her third LP is due for release early next month; there’s no reason for it not to be massive.
Words by Hannah Lendrum
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