Monday 10th May 2010 @ Academy, Bristol
With Support From: Ou Est Le Swimming Pool

Last night I saw what has come to be known as La Roux’s Gold Tour as it hit the Bristol Academy. The tour was postponed by six months due to illness so if it wasn’t sold out before, it would certainly be now following the success of their first album.

Tour support was kept the same as the previous ill fated tour and this was in the shape of the electro three piece known as Ou Est Le Swimming Pool (err…good name guys!). I had previously seen this band when Suit Yourself Magazine sent me to cover Beach Break Live festival last summer and almost a year later, we were still looking at a similar set but with no physical release of an album until this July. The band has some very catchy hooks to accompany the sleek electro synths but sadly, a lot of the songs were a little too similar for my liking but the two singers were both very enthused and got the crowd dancing by the end of the set.

With the stage decked out like an art deco cabaret and lighting up as if something was about to occur, it was now clearly time for a bit of La Roux and suddenly a very large audience seemed to descend on the pit in the Academy for a dance. The band sauntered onto the stage all with a monochromatic theme to their outfits. La Roux emerged from behind the set piece in what can only be described as a James Brown-style cloak. Her vocals were strong and primarily falsetto but teetering very near to being out of tune quite often.

Three songs in and we are treated to the anthemic In For The Kill which instantly got the crowd into a frenzy; however, this is when I realised how little stage presence La Roux actually has. She spent most of her time on stage singing to stage left or right and barely looking at the audience. This was a little disappointing as I was expecting fashion and pops favourite new electro pixie to be like a force of nature live, when in fact it felt a bit like it was still a sound check and we had all sneaked in unbeknownst to her.

The set was broke up by a rather lovely number called Saviour played on the acoustic guitar which I think should have been part of the encore. The highlight of the set was in fact the encore which was always going to be Bulletproof and it was finally the song that made La Roux come to life and begin to interact with the crowd (bit late love!). Although I enjoyed this gig as the quality of the music was high, the entertainment factor was pretty low. Let’s hope a summer of festivals toughens up the lady for the next album tour so that she lives up to the hype. And just for the record, her quiff didn’t move all night, not an inch - that was impressive!

www.laroux.co.uk

Stu Freeman
Photos by Laura Palmer