Ladyhawke at Fine Line Cafe, Minneapolis (9/21/09)

Ladyhawke Setlist ♥ Fine Line Cafe, Minneapolis (9/21/09)

Pip Brown, aka Ladyhawke, is the cute-shy unsuspecting headliner for Perez Hilton tour, when it was announced that, due to illness, that main headliner, Ida Maria will not be playing the Fine Line Cafe in Minneapolis 9/22/09.

The good news was that the show was free, so it was still a pretty decent turnout, lots of young underage students (you can tell by the sea of black “X” on the back of their hands. It also seems to me that this night is possibly the best night of their lives.

Sliimy (official / myspace / twitter) opened up the whole thing. I thought he was joking when he said he was French (“with a bad English accent”), but he was telling the truth. He also reminded me of Prince, but with glasses and a gold lamé jacket. I expected Sliimy (incidentally pronounced “slimmy”, not “slimey”) to sound like Lady Gaga or something fitting on Perez Hilton’s record label – but they don’t sound quite as poppy.

In replacement for Maria was Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head (myspace / twitter.com), which you may know is a reference to V For Vendetta. They are a young, energetic band, singing songs about “Sophisticated Side Ponytail” and “Holding Hands in the Shower” (and possibly with your daughter). You half expect them to burst out singing, “I’m on a motherfucking boat”.

Speaking of energetic, Semi Precious Weapons (official / myspace / twitter.com) are unforgettable. I first saw this band at SXSW but didn’t know who they were. I thought to myself, “this band is going to be huge“, never thinking I would actually see them randomly at some point in the future. They are definitely a band to catch live, the bassist is insane!

Ladyhawke ♥ Fine Line Cafe, Minneapolis (9/21/09)

When Ladyhawke took the stage, she’s nervous happy. Between songs, she was at a loss of words, or when she did speak they sound nonsensical to me. However, she did manage to sneak in the story about seeing a man on a unicycle. She called it the dumbest thing she’s ever seen. I suppose growing up in a small town in New Zealand, you don’t see too many weird stuff like that.

Ladyhawke – Dusk Till Dawn (Pascal Gabriel Radio Mix)

Ladyhawke seems more comfortable when she’s playing guitar, and as much as I like “Dust Till Dawn”, it didn’t sound as good as some of her other songs – particularly “Love Don’t Live Here”, “Paris Is Burning”, and “My Delirium”. Yes, the hits keeps on coming.

You’ll be happy to know that Ladyhawke is continuing her tour through America until early October, before heading back to Australia. She did mention that she’ll be back in the US “very soon”, which I get the impression that means three months.

Her self-titled album was released last year, but there is a re-issue with extra acoustic tracks, according to amazon.