Lykke Li @ Varsity Theater

I’m sure there were plenty of people in the near-capacity crowd at the Varsity Theater that were surprised with just how funky Lykke Li’s live show was Sunday night. While her album just offers hints of bass and beat driven sounds in favor of an overall more subdued, downcast tempo, her live show is a frenzy of percussion, pre-recorded backing tracks, and a three piece band that really filled out her sound nicely. And that support allowed Lykke Li to dance around the stage like a whirling dervish, constantly beating on symbols placed on either side of her whenever she wasn’t singing. It was an energy that the languid Sunday night crowd at the Varsity initially had a hard time matching, but eventually Li and her band got the crowd moving in what turned out to be quite a rousing set.

Taking the stage alone to the instrumental sounds of “Melodies & Desires,” the opening track from her excellent full-length debut Youth Novels, Li proceeded to ease slowly into the opening bars of “Dance, Dance, Dance” before the band hit the stage to join her for the chorus, and really turned the song into a propulsive, drum driven smash that got the show off to a great start. And even though it took a while for the young crowd’s enthusiasm to match the band’s (it was a 15+ show after all), that didn’t stop Li from whirling around the stage, beating her drum stick on whatever was nearby, urging the crowd to let go “because it’s Sunday.” Her verve, and her band’s steady accompaniment added an upbeat, danceable quality to early set standouts “Everybody But Me,” “I’m Good, I’m Gone” and “Complaint Department,” which owes quite a bit of it’s menacing sound to fellow Swedes the Knife.

Li’s boundless energy eventually enlivened the large crowd, who were enraptured by her cover of Kings Of Leon’s “Knocked Up” which she cheekily dedicated to anyone who’s pregnant in the crowd (too bad M.I.A. was at the Grammys). I liked her version much better than the original, and the cover was just a sign of things to come in a set that would feature a few surprises. Halfway through “I Don’t Mind” she busted into a credible, amped-up cover of Lil Wayne’s “A Milli” that finally got the response from the crowd that the shy, Swedish chanteuse had been looking for all night. That communion with the crowd really propelled the end of the set to great heights, with “Let It Fall,” “Little Bit” and “Hanging High” really benefiting from the energetic reworkings of her full-band live show. At one point she got part of the crowd to sing along in French to the chorus of “Window Blues,” which is no small feat, even around the campus of the U. And, by the time she got to the raucous set closer “Breaking It Up,” she had the room electrified and entranced by her sultry, smoky vocals and captivating stage presence. “Breaking It Up” was another example of how her songs turn into club anthems through her enlivened live show, and that adds a depth and moxie to her songs that aren’t quite as evident on record.

She came back out solo at the start of the encore to sing a tender version of “Time Flies,” before the band joined her on an absolutely stunning version of “Tonight” that was the highlight of the set for me. The song is a real showstopper, and her achingly beautiful version last night will stick with me for quite a while. It was just perfect in every sense of the word. But the party wasn’t over by a long shot, as the familiar bass-line to Lou Reed’s “Walk On The Wild Side” echoed off the walls, along with Li’s melodic “Do-do-do, da-do, do-do-do” that ushered in what I immediately recognized as her lively cover of A Tribe Called Quest’s classic “Can I Kick It” that really set the place off. It was a great way to end the nearly hour-long show, and drove the point home even further that Lykke Li is indeed funky, and can bring the noise when she wants to. I wouldn’t be surprised to see that hip-hop element permeate her music more in the future, and look forward to hearing how her style evolves over the course of her next couple of records. No matter what direction Lykke Li chooses to take her sound, she’s got enough variables and influences involved to keep all of us interested for quite some time to come.

(Review by Erik Thompson, photos by Jon Behm and videos by guest contributor Brody McCoy.)

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Also: Lykke Li on Last Call with Carson Daly