Lady Sovereign @ The Fillmore, San Francisco by Alisha Amnesia Friday, June 9th, 2006 For those of you who haven’t heard about Lady Sovereign, she is quite a surprising character. She has two well-known singles that are played by hip hop and dance DJ’s around San Francisco at the moment. They are “Random” and “Cha-Ching.” Her sound is hip-hop and dance, but is unique and hard to describe. She sounds like a Jamaican, with aggressive vocals, and a quick flow. When I first heard her singles a couple of months ago, I was in love with both of them, but I fully assumed she was a black woman. I did a bit of Internet searching, and found that she’s is a tiny white girl from England. She’s so tiny, in fact, that she calls herself “the midget.” She is currently touring as support for fellow Englishmen, The Streets. Tickets went for $21.50 online, and I was undecided about going since she was only the opening act, and I only wanted to see her. By the time I decided to go, the show was sold out, but I showed up anyway. Scalpers were selling tickets for $80 a piece! I managed to get snuck in for $30, and stood up front for Lady Sovereign’s full set. I was curious about what the crowd would be like. I noticed there were a lot of English accents in the crowd, and I met a few of them. The guys I met were there to see The Streets and had no knowledge of Lady Sovereign. There were quite a lot of people watching her though, so I am certain there were others like myself who went to see her. The crowd was predominantly white, and dressed a bit preppy, like an Abercrombie and Fitch catalogue. That makes sense, since that is how The Streets look. (Incidentally I watched their first song and found it redundant and left.) Lady Sov’s DJ played great music until she came on stage, and she performed with a live bass player as well. I was surprised at how small and young she was for someone that has such a polished, confident sound. She is probably less than 5 feet tall, and she looked about 15 years old. I found out she is actually 20. She opened the show with “Cha-Ching,” followed by “Random,” (which surprised me because artists usually slip their hit singles in the middle or end of their sets). She did a new song that I thought was really cool called “Orange,” about girls who use self-tanner and look orange! It was quite funny. There is a super-fan of hers named Zach Slow, who put a website up in an attempt to raise $10,000 and get a date with Lady Sovereign after the SF concert. She called him out from the stage saying, “That’s Zach, the player who’s taking me on a date.” I spoke with him after the show and asked if they were really going out, and he said yes. I asked what they were doing and he said they were going on a yacht. He recounts the night with photos on the journal page of his website. It sounded like a blast. helpmegetrandomwithladysovereign.com She closed the show with ?Public Warning? and ?9 to 5.? Since she?s English, I?m sure her songs are better known over there than in the states currently. I am not really involved in a hip-hop scene locally, so I am not sure how widely she is received, or how well known she is in those circles. I am more involved in Punk and rock and roll, and I frequent dance clubs and gay bars, where I occasionally hear her singles being played. One thing that attracted me to her music is that it has attitude. It?s fresh, and has an ?I don?t give a f*** what you think? vibe, which is a very punk attitude. I was really glad I went to see her because she is a unique talent, the kind that doesn?t come along every day. She put on a top rate show, keeping the audience engaged, performing with confidence, and it sounded great. Her DJ is also really awesome. I hope she?s not a flash in the pan. I hope she comes out with another album in the coming year, and proves to us that she?s here to stay. For more on Lady Sovereign, www.ladysovereign.com