Sean’s Night Out: La Roux
Apr 20, 2010, 3:23 PM | Updated: May 13, 2011, 2:07 pm
By SEAN DETORE
MyNorthwest.com
Yesterday morning I was purchasing a couple of tickets to last nights La Roux show at the Showbox Market. I was getting progressively frustrated as the damn ticket price kept increasing upon each click of the mouse. Convenience charge here, random fee there, but this is how it goes. I was so very tempted to just get the tickets at the door because c’mon, who knows about La Roux? This show won’t sell out. I decided however to stay put and buy the golden tickets on-line as I’ve made the mistake of hoping on a prayer and it totally not working out. (Sleighbells and Yeasayer tonight for example, but that’s another story for another day.)
Special lady friend Kristina and I get to the Showbox and behold! the show is completely sold out. What foresight I had to just stay put and pay the man his money. La Roux had been on stage for about ten minutes and knowing that she has but one album I expect somewhat of a short set so I take special lady friend Kristina by the hand and we scoot right in. La Roux are an English electropop and synthpop duo made up of singer Eleanor Jackson and synthesizer player, co-writer and co-producer Ben Langmaid. Their music is most definitely influenced by 1980s synthpop including Yazoo, Erasure, Depeche Mode, The Human League, Heaven 17 and the like. Kristina and I rush to the left side of the stage pushing through the frenzy of sweaty, dancing bodies while La Roux sings ‘As If By Magic’…
La Roux is awesome! Each song is so great and upbeat and dancey that they inspire massive cheers and applause for the eighties synthpop revival on stage tonight. It was impossible not to dance to every song and at one point I was sure the floor of the Showbox was going to collapse underneath our hyperactive, schizophrenic feet. We were footloose and fancy free. La Roux claimed to not being a fan of cover songs at concerts and said they were a waste of time, but then said that something magical happened when they were recording at one point and decided to play this ditty for us all…
The Rolling Stones – ‘Under My Thumb’
The night rolled on and the dancing just became more and more intense as La Roux wrapped us all up in a blanket of electropop. The evening eventually culminated with La Roux singing one of their biggest hits ‘Bulletproof’ and I nearly went deaf from the roar of the crowd.
