Kentish Town Forum, London
Laura Pergolizzi’s delivers her bruising, Britney-referencing breakup songs with haunting vocals, Cyndi Lauper-ish whoops and champion whistling
Physically a cross between John Cooper Clarke and Patti Smith, vocally a blend of Gwen Stefani and Cyndi Lauper, Laura “LP” Pergolizzi alchemises that patchwork into something not currently available elsewhere. In front of a bursting full Forum, the New York singer-songwriter is a pop-rock alley cat, watchfully padding across the stage, offsetting her initial jitters with swagger. Her androgynous look has excited a good deal of “Is she a girl or a boy?” chatter – she identifies as female, but there is indeed something genderless about her. Only her voice, which is laced with Stefani-ish hiccups and Lauper-influenced power whoops, is conventionally girlish; otherwise, she’s a feline androgyne.
If her appearance weren’t striking enough, her performance is speckled with quirks. LP’s primary instrument is the ukulele, and she’s a champion whistler – a combination that sounds, on paper, as if she’s a step away from being a novelty act. In fact, the whistling is mournful and perfectly pitched, and the ukulele is a building block of her music, leavening her backing band’s surging guitar rock. When used as the lead instrument on When We’re High, it adds a gilded prettiness to a song that recounts getting stoned and listening to records with an ex-girlfriend. That tune’s final verse, by the way, has her shouting out a list of song titles – “Hips Don’t Lie! (Hit Me) Baby, One More Time!” – which may or may not be a jovial reference to her days as a jobbing pop songwriter who has worked with Rihanna, Christina Aguilera and Backstreet Boys. Singing it tonight, she barks the titles with notable good humour. Apparently, she was in bits when writing her current (fourth) album, Lost on You, on which this song appears, but now – recently engaged, according to Instagram – she is in bits no more.
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