Live Review

Lily Allen – Academy, Dublin

• 19th Mar 2009

Allen delivers an impeccable and energetic set as she brought her headlining tour to Dublin, complimenting her freshly-released second album ‘It’s Not Me, It’s You’ perfectly.

From the luminous lighting to the colourful crowd, the atmosphere inside The Academy was nothing but electric. La Roux, fronted by Elly Jackson, kicked off the night by supporting with a half-hour set of up-tempo electro/pop.

Although Jackson delivered memorable, catchy and creative songs along with her quirky hair and styling, her stage presence was lacking. She seemed to hold back from crowd interaction but given that the band is fairly new to the scene and the tour being on one of its first nights that can be forgiven. Aside from that they got the crowd excited and awake with hits like ‘Quicksand’ and ‘In For The Kill’. La Roux are definitely ones to watch out for this year.

After a stage re-modelling which seemingly took an age, Lily ran onto stage with her band and shot straight into ‘Everyone’s At It’. The perfect opening to both her album and concert, the energetic and loud bass fuelled the crowds ears and from that moment on, there was chaos. Lily seemed overwhelmed with the passionate reception as the entire crowd bounced and sang along to tracks, new and old.

Some of the highlights of the set were mash-ups of old favourites ‘Everything’s Just Wonderful’, ‘Oh My God’ and ‘Littlest Things’ along with a clever cover of Dizzee Rascal’s ‘Dance Wiv Me’. Every song off the new album was met with screams, cheers and the crowd chanting the lyrics back at Lily, signifying the immediate success and reception of the record.

The set finished with big performances of ‘Fuck You’ and ‘LDN’ leaving the crowd gasping for more. After an impromptu outfit change Lily returned for a final encore leaving the audience with huge hit single ‘The Fear’ and her massive cover of Britney’s ‘Womanizer’.

Needless to say, the gig was flawless. Lily delivered each song effortlessly, pitch-perfect and complete with all the attitude, cheekiness and humour that her fans love her for.

Between changing into runners, knickers being thrown on stage and providing free drinks for excited fans, Lily is one of the most personable and down-to-eath perfomers around today. She draws everyone closely in with her charm and charisma and wows them while doing it. Say what you like about Lily, but the world is her oyster at the minute, as it should rightly be, and she seems to be loving every minute of it!