Lykke Li at First Ave - Sunday, November 13th

I picked up Allison last night in uptown, and we had dinner at Namaste Cafe pre-show. I didn’t know a ton of her stuff going into it, just some of her more famous songs, but as Maggie said, sometimes those concerts are the best concerts.

We arrived just as the opener was finishing their set. We did an energy check and felt like we should probably be upstairs stage left, and it was actually the perfect spot. Spools of black fabric hung phantom-like over the stage, and she emerged through a transient cloud of smoke.

Allison said, “I like that she looks kind of dirty.” She wore a black flowing robe/cape and somnambulistically banged a cymbal with one drumstick. I think it was the drumstick (along with her hauntingly amazing voice) that made me realize she was really a wizard. A dirty one albeit but a wizard nonetheless.

It was probably one of my favorite concerts I’ve been to in a long time. She absolutely killed it. Alli and I danced and danced and pretended to cast spells in honor of the Dirty Wizard. At one point, I swear she made eye contact with us.

On the drive home Allison confessed that being there tonight and seeing an artist just totally in her element had awakened something inside her, drew to the surface her own aspirations to continue to pursue music. You guys, she has a voice that can make me cry, she’s so talented. She told me she’s totes going to name her band Dirty Wizard. As I idled in front of her building, so full of post concert glow, we sang Fast Car. She opened the door to leave, but the music pulled her back so we finished the whole track. And then naturally we had to dance a little bit to Little Bit before we said Goodbye.

(Photo via The City Pages)