When grime rapper Lucy Love first got her game in gear back in 2009, many heralded the arrival of a very unique performer on the local music scene. Packing a solid punch with her vicious lyrics and stern voice, the Zambian-born and Danish-bred Lucy Siame rapidly evolved into a force to reckon with. Fast forward a few years and Lucy’s third studio album, Desperate Days of Dynamite, is wreaking havoc on the streets, having dropped in September. Saturday’s show at Store Vega was a representation of the album, in itself a dreamy reflection of Lucy's turbulent persona and the changes she’s been through since her initial success a few years ago.
Playing the eerie, ‘No Scream No Shout' track off her latest album, Lucy’s stage setup resembled a dystopian world with colourful characters sporting wild, flamboyant haircuts and cult-like body paint. This anthemic tune of rebellion could not have contextualised the concert setting any better: bathed in rows of brilliant blue and raging red that coated the scene in a thick pyrotechnic cumulus cloud, Lucy announced her return to the scene with a searing vengeance that echoed heavily into the night. Clad in dark clothing that cast a Grace Jones-esque ambiance upon the scene, Lucy Love and her troupe of dancers and backing band were a sight to behold.
The popular tune ‘Prison’ was the second of the evening, featuring the more pop-inclined direction that Desperate Days of Dynamite has taken. But the best of the ‘old’ Lucy Love was still alive, as proven by tracks such as ‘Daddy was a Deejay’ (which was played both at the beginning of the set and towards the end). Midway through the proceedings, a dedication to one of the crowd who was enjoying his wedding night clad as a storm trooper spiced things up a bit, adding a comical twist to the evening. This was followed by the spine-tingling ‘F4E’ (‘Friends Forever’, which cast a dark shadow of contemplative, doubting moods that countered the more driven sounds of the performance, whilst epitomizing the deeply sentimental qualities of Lucy’s music.
The end of the show featured songs with rapid arrangements, some of which ventured into the territory of the drum ‘n’ bass genre, which features sporadically in numerous short bursts across different sections of her latest work. Though some of Lucy Love’s originality has been lost to more pop-induced sounds, she remains a unique artist, one capable of putting on a captivating, creative and highly artistic live show, as Saturday's performance proved.
