I want to be M.I.A.
Who else could pull off a glittery lamé American Apparel spandex outfit, drop mad rhymes about guerilla warfare, gold diggin’ and boys, and still manage to keep things authentically sexy?
Everyone’s favorite Sri Lankan by way of foggy Londontown, that’s who.
Friday night at the Wiltern, M.I.A. impressed notoriously apathetic Angelenos by forcing everyone present to their feet and keeping them moving nonstop.
While the Koreatown venue may be gorgeous from an architectural standpoint, the seating situation cramped many. Only a small portion of the floor area was available for open dancing, with the rest of the venue filled with annoyingly immobile theater seats. The bossy security guards didn’t help, busting people who tried to dance in the aisles. Nonetheless, the second-story mezzanine was literally shaking.
M.I.A. ripped through her songs with the aid of a TLC-style entourage, who rapped or sang occasionally with her, but their presence was more a statement of girl power than actual musical necessity.
When they first came on stage, it was hard to tell which of the girls was M.I.A. because all were wearing big sunglasses and sassy little hats ““ it was only until she started rapping on her first song, “Bamboo Banga” off her latest album “Kala,” that she was distinguished; and from that point on, it was hard to take one’s eyes off.
She was all over the stage ““ dancing on the speakers and sensually teasing the crowd up at the front, skipping and moving around with an infectious, unbridled energy that was as contagious as the “Bird Flu” (which she also performed later).
It’s almost a shame M.I.A. was such a dynamo to observe, since the new-wave, Supernintendo-esque images projected on a screen behind the stage were cool, but easily overshadowed.
One part baile-funk, one part Salt-N-Pepa, and one part Bollywood soundtrack on acid, M.I.A. performed the majority of songs from her latest album, including “Jimmy,” “Hussel,” “Boyz” and “20 Dollar,” a song that uses the lyrics from The Pixies’ “Where is My Mind” in the chorus. But some of the biggest crowd pleasers came with her older songs from her 2005 debut album “Arular,” in particular “Galang,” “Pull up the People” and “Bucky Done Gun.”
The entire audience shouting, “What can I get for 10 dolla? Anything you want” along to “10 Dollar” was a definite highlight, along with crazy-delicious “XR2,” one of the highest-energy songs of the night. I just know Girl Talk is chomping at the bit to remix that one.
Near the end of her set, M.I.A. performed the requisite down-tempo, lighter-waving slow(er) jam with “Paper Planes.” One wouldn’t think a song punctuated by gun sound effects and lyrics about visas and border-hopping would be sexy, but this proved that being a female “bona fide hustla” can be pretty damn sensual.
““ Devon McReynolds