Electro girl.
A look at the merchandise stall highlighted that La Roux appeared to focus on her hairstyle and its always a worry when the most interesting or saleable asset of an artist is their hair. Sure the Beatles had lovable moptops and the punk mohawk is iconic but what about Sigue Sigue Sputnik? Hopefully you just answered “who?” to that question so it remains to be seen what La Roux has in her locker to make her a better bet than the so called saviours of 80s pop.
The sound was a very 1980s sound but not in a retro fashion, La Roux and her two synth players managed to deliver a very authentic representation of the sound of all those years ago. As for the vocals themselves, La Roux easily had power and range and was capable of powering her way through the scales. This can sometimes be all about technique as opposed to genuinely holding a melody and delivering a good song but there was at least a balance between overblown theatrics and singing with the intent of driving the song. The synth sound was very good and unsurprisingly, extremely prominent, with the only backing for La Roux coming from the synth players flanking.
For all the cold and studied lack of moves that were being offered on stage, there was a matching from the audience as there was barely a flicker of recognition for the singer, apart from a small band of dedicated fans down the front. The performance deserved a better response than the one La Roux received but such is the hardship of acting as a warm up act for a pop star, the fans aren't really music fans in the usual mould, there needs to be harder work done beforehand (and usually by PR companies) to really make an impact in this position.
The last song of the set was easily the best track with the catchiest melody of the entire show. There was a good break section and by the time the song came to a halt, La Roux finally got some recognition and love from the audience and its likely there will be a few people adding themselves to the social networking sites of La Roux.