Empress Of's Birthday Eve Show at Bar Le Ritz

Empress Of’s birthday-eve show at Bar Le Ritz closed out the North American leg of her tour for her newest album For Your Consideration. The show was opened by Casey MQ, a former Torontonian DJ turned Los Angeles producer, whose soft vocals cooed into the microphone and coaxed the dispersed audience toward the stage. In the crowd of 30- to 40-something-year-olds I could hear whispers about his Club Quarantine project, a Zoom-based nightly club created by a group of Torontonian hyperpop-y artists in the early days of COVID lockdown. Club Q’s popularity grew exponentially, starting in March of 2020 with ‘crowds’ barely passing 100 screens, to hosting big-name artists like Charli XCX and Alice Glass in April, capping out the Zoom attendance limits at 1,000. As one of the early attendees of Club Q, it helped buffer the adjustment from partying five nights a week as a first-year university student to staring at a screen for any form of social engagement. It's been really heartwarming to see Casey MQ go from being a shy DJ partying online with his friends to living in Los Angeles as a producer and releasing his own music. Though I’ve never been a big fan of his music, which feels too much like Taylor Swift’s 1989 era to me, I appreciate seeing how far he's come. In his performance, Casey repeatedly switched from standing with the microphone to sitting next to his laptop playing a keyboard. This felt sweet but a bit awkward, to constantly be shifting positions; and while he didn’t have much to say he was very appreciative of Empress Of for being brought along on this tour In my opinion, sometimes it's best to stay quiet rather than repeat oneself when on stage. 

    Once Empress Of came on stage, in a matching plaid top and side-split pleated skirt, the audience was full and concentrated in the front. Unlike many concerts I’ve been to there was no weird two-foot space between the stage and the first row of onlookers. Perhaps it was Bar Le Ritz’s layout or the quality of fans present, either way, it was refreshing to not have to awkwardly shuffle forward when the performer asks you to come closer. Empress Of immediately jumped into playing songs from her newest album, For Your Consideration, released this past spring, and the remix album at the beginning of October. She only stopped to greet the crowd and introduce her multi-instrumentalist behind her after her second or third song, as if she wanted to slam us into dance rather than build up anticipation as some artists do. Her one-woman band was Cecilia, one of the most beautiful people I’ve ever seen. She stood to the side of center stage and created the entire sonic landscape by playing keyboard, Moog, guitar, looping vocals and controlling drum backing tracks. Empress Of declared herself a yapper, and when Cecilia found her talking too much between tracks she would just start playing the next song. It was a really cute dynamic, and I couldn’t tell if the sexual tension was between Cecilia and Empress Of or the audience collectively thirsting over the two beautiful and talented women on stage.

    This was the last set of the For Your Consideration North American tour, and the night before her 35th birthday, she made this clear by going hard. She had a plethora of self-choreographed dance moves and would repeatedly pick up a fan on the floor and raise it up above her head to blow through her hair before setting it back on the stage to blow her skirt up, Marilyn Monroe-esque, showing off her leather underwear. The set list for the show was wonderfully inclusive, with lots of songs from the newest album, her hits from the past that transported me back to high school feels; and songs from her 2020 album I’m Your Empress Of. These included her “theme song” as she described it, along with audio clips of her mother, during which she would raise her hands up in gratitude towards the hanging speakers. One thing I found exciting was her inclusion of songs she had recently featured on like Shygirl’s 4eva and Kito’s Wild Girl. I’m not used to artists performing songs they feature on without the main artist and I really like it, especially since I’ve seen Shygirl perform 4eva at the Charli XCX x Troye Sivan Sweat tour this past September. 

    I enjoyed thinking that I may have been the youngest person in the audience, it felt nice to be in a friendly crowd with no need to fight to keep my spot in the front. There was a gay couple in front of me, who would occasionally turn to each other to make jokes and giggle, very adorable; and an older woman in her 50s next to me who, during her favorite songs, would reach her arms up and lose herself in dance. It was a really sweet crowd of fans who knew the lyrics to everything, from newer songs to hits from 2017. However, in recent female-fronted concerts, I’ve noticed an uncomfortable trend of one normal-looking guy (ie. not one of the girls or the gays) standing in the dead center of the front row, holding a phone out and recording the entire concert. I don’t want to assume anything but I do find it strange, like, if you’re so obsessed with the artist, why don’t you put your phone down and enjoy the concert in the moment? I’ll never understand behavior like this, but I’m biased, I even feel embarrassed to pull my phone out to take the picture that is required for these write-ups.