Front Row Pics: Lily Allen at House of Blues, Boston
Lily Allen. Exactly how does one describe musician Lily Allen so as to paint a picture that even comes close to capturing all that she is, both the good and the bad? She’s impish and mature, serious and goofy, lauded and dismissed…a bundle of energy that’s one of the most magnetic yet frustrating examples of an enigma, wrapped in a riddle, surrounded by mystery you’ll find in the entertainment world ~ and she has been since, in the summer of 2006 at barely twenty years old, she recorded her first number one.
And as luck would have it, Lily, who’s been making appearances onstage here and there for the past couple of months, just embarked on the North American dates of her 2014 tour (for a list of ALL of Lily’s remaining tour dates, click here) and FW’s contributing photographer Robb Duchemin was able to capture the essence of this perplexing, captivating, inimitable performer during her Sept. 20 show at House of Blues in Boston, MA (click on any photo to enlarge).
Of all the attempts to verbally portray (there have been, wisely, almost none to understand or categorize) the whirlwind of person and persona named Lily Allen, the following may come closest:
“‘This is trouble,’ I thought, the first time I saw the girl coming.
She’s posh, she’s common, she’s sexy, she’s demure, she’s reticent, she’s outspoken, she’s sensitive, she’s shameless, she’s loved-up, she’s distraught…[she’s] contrary, contradictory, occasionally catty, always compelling…smart-mouthed, wide-eyed…cheeky, waspish, searingly honest, sparky, spiky and satirical…wise beyond her years and tremendously motivated…
[She is] experience, heartbreak, joy, mischief, pain, trouble and fun: the whole of your twenties wrapped in sleek, brilliant pop music.
It’s a potent combination. It could only be Lily Allen.” ~ John Niven
… but it is through photographs that the twinkle in the eyes, the semi-defiant posture, and the naughty-girl moves tempered by barely perceptible self-consciousness are truly revealed.
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Official Website
“…she’s still the same firecracker who turned heads in the mid-’00s with eclectic, post-hip-hop tunes and bullshit-slaying lyrics…” ~ Rolling Stone
