Live Review: Lady Sovereign

Live Review: Lady Sovereign

Even a huge spliff couldn't save Lady Sovereign's star-crossed gig: Aidin Vaziri | Lady Sovereign was throwing a royal fit. On the way to her first headlining show in San Francisco on Tuesday, the British rapper's bus broke down. Then, when she finally got onstage at the Mezzanine sometime around 12:45 a.m., after a couple of insufferable opening acts, the amplifiers gave out. Within half a second of starting the first song of her hourlong set, "Ch Ching," she stopped the show and fumed. "I'm going to be a bitch for two minutes," the 5-foot-1 rapper in the "Biggest Midget In the Game" T-shirt said, removing her oversized sunglasses. "S -- ain't working." After making everyone in the sold-out crowd anxiously mill about while guitar strings were checked and knobs were twiddled, her three-piece live band gave the track another go, but Sovereign, 20, still looked annoyed. "Well, that song's down the toilet," she groaned, dropping the microphone as the pre-recorded verses blared out of the monitors. Frustrated, she finally folded her arms across her chest, scrunched her face up into a mean frown and simply sat down on the drum riser, hurling expletives: "F -- ! F -- ! F -- !" The most biting criticism of the night came from a voice in the back of the club: "You're so 19!"