Danish songstress MØ made her Canadian debut at Toronto's Wrongbar last night. Here are seven things you missed.
1. The mind-blowingly excellent post-R&B of Swedish singer Erik Hassle
Erik Hassle had his first hit in Sweden in 2008, then found success in the U.K. after touring with Mika. In the last couple years, though, he's kept a low profile, to both work on himself and retool his sound. The result is a body of work that is beautiful on record and capable of pulling you into a deep cave of emotion when performed live. Hassle has a voice like Robin Thicke, minus the creep factor, crossed with the Weeknd, minus the crushing ennui. It's all layered over haunting, witch house-y beats.
2. Hassle getting massive, massive applause as he walked offstage
It's really rare to see an opening act get any sort of love at all, let alone the massive pop the crowd gave Hassle. As stoked as everyone was for MØ, you felt like Hassle could have played for another 20 minutes and people would have been happy about it.
3. Confirmation on how you pronounce MØ's name
That Scandinavian o-slash is really hard for English speakers to wrap our heads, and lips, around, but according to Hassle it's pronounced "Meu." (MØ's stage name mean's "virgin" in Old Norse. It's also MØ's middle and last initial. Her real name is Karen Marie Ørsted.)
4. MØ fans losing their minds from the moment she came onstage
Commenting on crowd enthusiasm seems a little superfluous at times. Of course the audience is enthusiastic; they paid money to be there. Or at least that's how it should be. In reality though, we've seen too many audiences that look like they'd rather be somewhere else. This was not the crowd at MØ.
Mostly female, mostly in their early 20s and almost entirely dressed like extras from the original version of Beverly Hills 90210, they went into absolute screaming, dancing, foot-stomping rapturous joy from the moment MØ stepped onstage. They knew every word, which is pretty impressive, considering that she'd never come to Canada before, and that two years ago, no one had ever heard of her.
5. MØ joining the "makes more sense live" club
A few weeks ago, we wrote a list of "bands you have to see live to get." In spite of the fact she's a solo artist, MØ should very much be counted as a member of that club. Recorded, she is really, really likeable. She makes clever synth-pop, and you get the comparison to Grimes. Live, though, she's a different animal. Her voice is bigger, with more range that goes from having a very R&B quality to an almost Kate Bushian lilt and back again. Performing with a live band — drummer, guitarist, synth and sequencer player — she's less synth-poppy and more danceable rock. That, and she's a remarkably kinetic performer. She doesn't so much dance as hop, gyrate, flail, shadowbox and occasionally roll around on the floor.
6. An ever increasing level of audience interaction
Halfway through her set, MØ took advantage of the low stage by sort of casually wandering out into the crowd. Later on, she ran out again, stood on a table at one side of the bar, and sang from there. By the time she wrapped up her set, she was singing while being crowdsurfed to the back of the room.
7. A Spice Girls cover to start the encore
Actually, her version of "Say You'll Be There" is way better than the original.
by Chris Dart via Electronic RSS
