Estelle
House of Blues – Chicago, IL
February 25, 2009
I don’t know how the girl does it, but Estelle somehow can pull off wearing five-inch stiletto heels on stage for an entire hour without sitting down. She can even pull off dancing in them without showing any signs of unbalance. Estelle is the queen of “real talk,” which for those of you who don’t know London slang, is the equivalent for the phrases “for real” and “I’m serious” here in America. In between every song of the 60-minute set, British hip hop/soul/r&b star Estelle shared intimate stories from her past that served as inspiration for each song on her sophomore album Shine. Although Estelle’s appearance is stylish and polished, this girl has quite the sailor mouth when it comes to cussing. But given the circumstances of performing on stage to a crowd of 500 fans all 17+ years old, I see nothing wrong with Estelle’s use of profanities to embellish her story-telling. After all, Estelle wouldn’t be around if her experiences hadn’t motivated her to write songs and put those words to melody. Besides singing songs from Shine, Estelle also performed a cover of “Get Ready” by The Temptations. That was awesome. I mean, who doesn’t like The Temptations? Furthermore, who doesn’t like that song? Here is a list of songs from Estelle’s set (in no particular order):
Wait a Minute (Just a Touch)
No Substitute Love
American Boy
More Than Friends
Magnificent
Come Over
In the Rain
Back in Love
Pretty Please (Love Me)
Shine
I Wanna Live
Get Ready (The Temptations cover)
More photos of Estelle from the Chicago House of Blues show after the jump…
