Robyn Is A Dancehall Queen At The Hollywood Bowl: Concert Review

Becky Bain | October 23, 2011 11:13 pm

Robyn spent a big chunk of 2011 touring the country with Katy Perry on her California Dreams tour, but the Swedish darling – who is having her biggest year since she first premiered on the pop landscape in 1997 — finally had the headlining spot at the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday night. Whether she’s performing in front of a small crowd at the airport or for thousands of people, Robyn knows how to make every last person listening dance to her beat.

Wearing platform boots, stretchy, colorful leggings and her bowl-shaped platinum pixie cut, Robyn kicked off her set with “We Dance To The Beat”, heading straight into her seemingly endless list of things that are “killing” her in “Don’t Fucking Tell Me What To Do”. “Dancing On My Own”, probably the pop star’s most well-known song here in the States (and one that snagged her a Grammy nomination for “Best Dance Recording”), surprisingly came in the middle of her set instead of somewhere near the end of the night – and even earlier than you’d expect considering the concert had multiple ending moments.

“Call Your Girlfriend”

Though most acts please their audiences with one encore, Robyn had three! The first one, after an amazing rendition of “Call Your Girlfriend” (with the singer showing off the same dance moves from the video), was a given. But the second encore, coming after a spectacular performance with opening act Norwegian electro group Röyksopp (on “None Of Dem” and “The Girl And The Robot”), we assumed that had to be it.

Wrong! As soon as we (among many concertgoers) reached the exit, in a rush of reflecting on an amazing evening of live music, another song began to play, and we ran back to our seats to catch Robyn, now wearing a black dress with what looked like day-glow green Koosh ball-material on the front and back, perform another handful of songs that spanned her career: a mellow, Snoop-less version of Body Talk track “U Should Know Better”, “Konichiwa Bitches” from Robyn, and then a brief but elegant cover of ABBA’s “Dancing Queen” transitioning into the pop star’s 1997 hit, “Show Me Love”.

“Dancing Queen” / “Show Me Love”

Showing Robyn love isn’t much of a problem –  while other pop acts might require distracting set pieces, endless costume changes and an army of backup dancers to keep the crowd entertained at their live shows, Robyn just needs her tunes and her passion for performing.

[Photo via Flickr]

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