Romy

2022 was an embarrassment of riches when it came to concerts.  2023?  Not so much, alas.  Van and I did Red Rocks early in November, a series of DJ sets presented by Anjunabeats.  And Allison and I did TRNSMT in Glasgow in July.  Beyond that?  Nothing that comes to mind.

So thank goodness for a show at last, even if it does mean trekking to a different part of LA and staying up later than our usual bedtime.

I remember when The XX first came out.  I liked a song of theirs, then a while later, on a subsequent album, another song.  Two songs in total, that's all I knew.  I heard some of the Jamie XX and Oliver Sim solo work since then, but in neither case did it really grab me.

Months back, though, I saw that Romy had released an album, and I checked out a song or two out of curiosity.  Spoil alert:  Loveher will be #1 on my year end list that I compile.  So good!  I had planned to tell Van about her, and he surprised me by having discovered her as well at about the same time.  If anything, he got way further into her album than I did.  So when he suggested we go see Romy perform live, I happily agreed.

The show was held over in the Mid-Wilshire area, at a theatre not far from LACMA.  We had an easy dinner nearby (pasta, cocktails, nothing I photographed, it was fine), then headed to the theatre.  Gorgeous marquee, I have to say. 

Didn't seem too busy, but it was early.  In fact, when we walked in, the first opening act had just finished, and the second was about to start up, a DJ named Kim Foxman. 

She played for over an hour, which was, well, perhaps too generous.  No, she wasn't bad - I bopped, truly.  But I also wanted Romy to come on.  I'm old, remember.

The show was just Romy and a DJ playing the backing tracks, and it was pretty good.  I like her voice, but I can't say it's the most powerful, and I felt at first that she was lost in the music that was supposed to be backing her.  But the show gained momentum. 

She was clearly loved by the audience (and wow, so many gay men, so many gay men with regular body types, which was such a welcome delight)(and far fewer lesbians than I might have expected, from what I saw), and she seemed humbled and appreciative.  That was important when, late in the show, during Loveher, the backing track died abruptly.  Restarted, some progress, died again.  Restarted, and two songs later, died again.  At that point, she left the stage so that the crew could deal with it.  She came back and was very apologetic.  The audience was gracious in return.  She closed out the show a couple of songs later.  The first, or nearly the first of her small tour.  Darn technical problems.

And now there are no more shows planned this year.  May there be some in 2024.  I can't believe I took so little opportunity over the years to see live music in Chicago, and I am glad I've managed so many opportunities here in SoCal since then.