Lily Allen’s Return To The Concert Stage Gets Mixed Reviews

Lily Allen returned to live performance on Wednesday with a show at Koko in London. The Koko show was a warmup for Allen’s UK tour, which begins in March. According to reports from those at the show, Allen made an effort to move away from the sound of her 2006 debut album, Alright, Still, and only performed three songs from that album at the Koko show. Songs from Allen’s new album, It’s Not Me, It’s You, dominated the set list.

 The new material is mostly guitar-based pop, a departure from the ska-sounding tunes from her first album. “The Fear,” the album’s first single which is number one in the British charts, reportedly received a good reception from the crowd.

Among the songs from the new album that Allen performed at Koko was “Fuck You,” a song that Allen wrote about George W. Bush. I haven’t heard the song yet, but I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment.

Allen’s hour-long performance at Koko closed with a cover of Britney Spears’ “Womanizer.”

Some fans were not happy with Allen’s musical shift. I’ll have to reserve judgment until I hear the new album. I do like “The Fear” quite a bit. It’s a great lead single for the album.

For more on Lily Allen’s Koko performance, see the article from BBC 6 Music.

Also see the review of Allen’s Koko performance from The Times of London.

I saw Allen perform twice in 2007 when she was touring behind her first album. The first show, at New York City’s Irving Plaza, was fantastic. The second one, which took place several months later at Roseland in midtown Manhattan, was a considerably more shambolic affair. Allen had sheets of paper with the lyrics written on them on the floor in front of her microphone. The papers got jumbled and she lost her place. Forgetting the words, she implored the audience to take the lead vocal. I thought it was really funny, but also incredibly unprofessional. Allen is a very charming performer, and that charm persuaded the audience to go along and take over the lead vocal until Allen could get her shit together and find her place in the song. Given that experience, I hope that Allen puts in more rehearsal time for her upcoming UK tour. In this tough economy, concertgoers will be more fickle about what gigs to attend. If Allen continues to act like she doesn’t give a damn onstage, maybe her audience will stop supporting her and find other artists to follow. I’m sure that many artists would be more than happy to inherit Allen’s audience.

To watch an amateur video of Allen performing “Smile” at the Koko show this past Wednesday night, click below:

To watch Allen performing “The Fear” live on a Webcast earlier this month, click below:

To hear a sampler of songs from Allen’s new It’s Not Me, It’s You album, click below: