Secondhand Setlists

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of Lizzo🐍

A photo posted by Mick Jacobs (@flickjacobs) on Jan 22, 2017 at 10:57am PST

If self-love is, as Audre Lorde put it, an act of political warfare, then Melissa “Lizzo” Jefferson delivered a sonic D-Day to the Echoplex this past Friday.

Decked out in a sequined robe lined with pink feathers, Jefferson stormed the stage alongside her “big grrls” and DJ Sophia Eris. Opening with the brassy “Worship”, she demanded our love from the get-go, something the crowd was more than eager to throw her way. With two full-length LPs and an EP under her belt, the twin cities girl blasted through a collection of tracks ranging from fresh to favorites; watching her and Eris nod along to “Batches and Cookies” after three-plus years of performing it still feels as charged as it did not even a year ago.

Given the nature of the day, Jefferson made self-care the battle-cry of the evening. “I’m still trying to learn how to do this myself,” she admitted, but it fits her oh-so-well. Not once, but twice, she excused herself (“Scuse Me”) to feel herself, encouraged by the raves of the crowd.

As strong as she appeared, Jefferson’s most compelling feats actually came across as she got brutally honest. The highlight of the evening was felt in the vodka drenched sorrows of “Bother Me”, specifically the “Hide And Seek” warbles that conclude it. To see such a ferocious, full-bodied woman explore her heartbreak with the same confidence as her swagger felt like someone reading their diary over a loudspeaker. Every muscle she flexed on “Deep”, “Scuse Me”, or “Good As Hell” was met with an equal emotional catharsis on “Humanize” and “My Skin”, a track she promised always to play for the reaction it garners from fans. But seriously, everything she played that evening elicited the same, rapturous applause from the audience as the world finally realized this girl truly towers over all of it.

“Bigger than the sun and the moon” doesn’t even come close.