Little Boots shows her music is made for dancing in Chicago

September 17, 2009, at Empty Bottle

By Selena Fragassi
Published: September 19th, 2009 | 10:00pm

“I really wasn’t expecting this,” said Victoria Christina Hesketh, the pint-size blonde sprite known as the U.K. phenom Little Boots. The evening’s feeling was mutual – although Ms. Boots has a rich history in her motherland, appearing on the British reality competition Pop Idol, the 25-year-old is a rather un-chartered import for U.S. audiences who as of yet had only been introduced through a handful of songs on her summer EP, Illuminations (Elektra). So it was anybody’s guess how Little Boots was single-handedly able to turn Chicago’s brooding rock club Empty Bottle into a hotshot Page Six nightclub with a near-capacity crowd dripping in designers and sweat as they spit out every catchy chorus in her short 10-song set.

Like Little Boots sings on her disco-flavored track, “Click,” — there was no doubt that “tonight we had a connection” at her first Chicago show. From the moment the perched electronic Lite Brite gadget lit up with her name after an extended wait, the crowd erupted in a volcanic fit of giddiness and surefire cheer for a new idol they were just waiting to crown their latest dancing queen.

Dressed in a spicy sequin and mesh dress with gladiator heels, Little Boots proved that her electro-retro-Euro pop music was made for not for walking but for dancing as she played the lead by stomping and jumping around the stage like a well-rehearsed club kid. With an energetic joie de vivre reminiscent of Metric’s Emily Haines, Little Boots owned each moment with a bewitching double persona of high-spirited emcee and swoon-worthy life of the party.

Behind her were equally talented musicians who ripped into a heavy drum solo for the break beats of “Remedy” and sultry synth on “Every Little Earthquake.” Like any good club hit, songs like “New in Town” and “Stuck on Repeat” started slow like a first date and went straight for the out-of-the-park homerun rush as the tempo surged in the swing of each carefully choreographed chorus.

It was evident that what works for Little Boots is her apprentice ability to breach easy-road trendiness with high road respect for ‘70s influences on songs like “Magical” (a dead ringer for Anita Ward’s “Ring My Bell”) and “Love Kills” (an appreciable cover of the Freddie Mercury and Giorgio Moroder hit).

Watch out for the spring album release and adjacent tour of this rising up-and-comer. As her Chicago show proved, Little Boots can fill the shoes of her likely label as 2010’s breakout artist.

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Little Boots official website

Little Boots MySpace page

Elektra Records