KELIS | LIVE REVIEW
Tramshed, Cardiff, Thurs 26 July
The atmosphere in the Tramshed on Thursday was flamboyant and cheery: far from the creeping anticipation most of the big names create before they breeze down Cardiff ends, there was a real light-hearted dance club vibe coming on as the night rolled in. The DJ was half responsible, setting the ‘Kelis’ theme early with some 90s r’n’b, 00s club classics and disco throwbacks, and the crowd did the rest themselves – mainly gay fellas and gals in their thirties, drunk, whooping and dancing as every mix came through.
But as 9pm came and went and our beer cups emptied and filled and emptied again, the vibe began to wear. The landmark of 9.30 came and went too, and the DJ was still playing Michael Jackson into Backstreet Boys. People began to make faces. A ticket to see Kelis set you back near 30 quid, and even if it is a part of the whole old-school ‘diva’ experience people might be paying for, by the time she began just before 10 there was only an hour of her for your money.
Not that the crowd seemed to mind. We could hear them screaming from the bar outside when she finally did come on, straight into Millionaire and through a bunch of older tracks. I said people paid for the diva experience: they got it. Kelis effortlessly dominates a room just by being in it, and her incredible voice was, if anything, stronger than on her records. The DJ remained throughout, mixing between tracks with a live drummer now, but the whole thing felt more like The Kelis Show than just another gig.
Sometime after Milkshake had whipped the room into a frenzy when she sang it mixed with Wu-Tang’s Gravel Pit, the mix went rapidly from Smells Like Teen Spirit to some Calvin Harris while Kelis just danced like she had the radio on in the kitchen – and the crowd loved it. If you had paid to see her in the flesh and have a raucous time you were all set, but if you’d wanted a proper dive into her catalogue, you might have left at 11 still wanting.
words JASON MACHLAB