Live Review: Amy Winehouse at Popscene, 04/26/07
Winehouse may look fragile, but she's a tough act to follow: Aidin Vaziri | Nothing about Amy Winehouse's appearance prepares you for her voice. Stumbling onstage at Popscene for her first Bay Area concert Thursday, the 23-year-old British soul sensation looked a bit like Christina Aguilera after being put through a shredder.
She wore her pile of black hair in an enormous beehive that, even before she walked into the room, had unraveled so much it resembled a haystack. Dropping her bruised leather jacket to the ground, she revealed skinny arms covered with scars and tattoos of naked women. And while the members of her 10-piece backing band were decked out in impeccable Motown-style suits, Winehouse opted for a dirty white tank top with thick bra straps tumbling out the sides. A new diamond barely clung to her ring finger.
Then she started to sing.
Playing nearly all the songs from her second album and American debut, "Back to Black," Winehouse revealed a natural instrument that was gentle, aching, rich, gauzy and incredibly soulful -- especially when paired with the band's lush arrangements and sharp lyrical twists like, "They tried to make me go to rehab, I won't go go go/ I'd rather be home with Ray/ I ain't got 70 days."
Those words arrived with her breakthrough hit, "Rehab," toward the end of the hourlong set, and throughout the night she made certain she lived by them.
"The first person to get me a Jack and Coke gets a kiss on the lips," she drawled in a coarse cockney accent miles removed from the delicate voice that graces her music, part Lauryn Hill, part Sarah Vaughan. When the drink arrived -- the first of many requested from the stage -- Winehouse delivered on her promise: "You're lucky my fiance's asleep."
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posted by Aidin at Sunday, April 29, 2007
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