Pitchfork

Oh, Robyn. Most times when a critically acclaimed act makes its New York debut, you get a predictable, stereotypical crowd of jaded scenesters, journalists, and industry types waiting to be impressed. Half the people in attendance usually seem not to have heard the artist before, and you wonder if their buddies finagled them spots on the guest list just so they could check out the week's big hype-- fashionably attired, always. Robyn's first stop on her long-overdue U.S. tour at newish New York venue Highline Ballroom Tuesday night was not one of those shows.

It helps that the Swedish pop chanteuse has kept Americans waiting to hear her self-titled album performed live for three years since its release in her home country. It probably also helps that her collaboration with Kleerup, "With Every Heartbeat", hit #1 in the UK last year. Both factors partly explain why the capacity crowd was singing along with Robyn's every word, as you can hear in these videos by Abbey Braden, rather than just standing there with their arms crossed. Most of all, though, it helped that Robyn is a platinum-haired, pixie-like dynamo whose performance lived up to the years of anticipation-- even made up for not being able to keep tabs on the Super Tuesday primary results.

Watching too many indie bands means seeing too many vocalists falter live, but Robyn's sassy voice evidences the good care she takes of it. She brought one of her two drummers to the front for a slightly altered rendition of her 1997 teen-pop hit "Show Me Love", she bopped around frantically for her Prince cover from 2006's Rakamonie EP ("Jack U Off"), and she did both the single and ballad version of her godlike "Be Mine". In between, she won us over with her passion and seemingly heartfelt gratitude. Anybody who showed up inexplicably expecting full-band accompaniment beyond two drummers and a keyboard/computer guy would've been disappointed, I guess, and yeah, the set was a little too short. My only real complaint? No Snoop Dogg. (via Stereogum)

Robyn: "Konichiwa Bitches"

Robyn: "With Every Heartbeart"

[Robyn is out now in the UK and Europe and due in the U.S. 05/06/08 on Konichiwa/Interscope]