Lykke Li Live @ Way Out West Festival

September 1, 2010

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It was one of the last shows of the festival this dark night of August 14 in Slottskogen, located in Gothenburg, Sweden. Scattered showers above the audience as the Swedish starlet returned after months of absence to the habitat where we enjoy her the most, the stage.

Cymbals are smashing, drums beating adding energetic sparkles to Lykke Li’s glowing stage quality.
Black draping are dancing in the wind, smoke machines and the impressive light show in courtesy of light designer Tobias G Rylander who also worked with Swedish group Miike Snow makes this show one of a kind.

Lykke Li included a few favorites from Youth Novels including Breaking It Up, Time Flies and Dance Dance Dance plus Possibility from the Twilight Soundtrack in her set list. Fashion forward and stylish as usual, Lykke Li wears a hand made Burka and holds it up graciously during her performance of hit song Little Bit.

“ Fuck this Shit,” shouts Lykke Li in the middle of the show. Her raspy voice is not in its best shape this night and decided to give up on her halfway through the set. The anticipations are strong from this Swedish pop princess – she wants this so bad. She want to be on stage in her home country, introduce her new songs and dance the night away – but her voice is simply not with her this evening. It just gets weaker and weaker towards the end.
To compensate, she performs a few covers and get some much-needed assistance from her back singer Zhala Rifat. The Fugees cover of Ready Or Not gets tons of cheering when the two talented women sensually interact in this old 90ies hip-hop tune.
Fortunately, before her voice totally gives up on her she plays some new tracks. However, they still need some more polishing and don’t really live up to her loved gems such as Little Bit and Dance Dance Dance. Yet.

Overall it’s, despite the vocal failure, it’s the homecoming we looked forward to the most this festival. Her talent and explosive show didn’t let us down completely, instead our excitement for her next adventures just grew stronger. We can’t wait for the return of miss Lykke Li.

Text and Photos By LK

Lykke Li performs Little Bit @ Way Out West Festival Aug 2010 from The Swede Beat on Vimeo.

Written by: The Swede Beat