Little Boots @ El Cid 5/12/18
“That’s 10 years in the business!” Victoria Hesketh quipped at one point. Onstage at El Cid, Hesketh, more commonly known as Little Boots, reminded us all why we still listen a decade later.Hesketh marketed this particular event as a “live debut,” where she performed new and old material with a new set of bandmates. A few sound issues aside, she and her band soon fell right into a groove. 
Together, they pranced through Hesketh’s catalogue, giving the audience a delightful stroll through one of pop’s sorely underrated discographies. The romantics of “Motorway” vamped off into the vigorous “Get Things Done”, each inspiring dancefloor antics on completely different levels. Two new tracks, “Shadows” and “Eros”, felt equally at home among the staples, “Shadows” especially matching Hesketh’s nocturnal aesthetics on “Shake” and the aforementioned “Motorway”. Seeing the audience react so enthusiastically made Hesketh feel not a little emotional: “This is the closest I’ll ever get to a wedding.”
It appeared as if Hesketh herself never expected to still perform after all these years. But this performance, for her precious Los Angeles, demonstrated the perseverance Little Boots always represented. Like Katy B or Robyn, she turns clubs into havens of rebirth and release, knowing just the right words to say over the right synths. Boots always felt a bit scrappier, armed with her keytar and blasting through noisy cuts like “New In Town”.
She finished on that same song, revealing it to be an ode to the City of Angels itself. It bounced like it did 10 years ago, and likely sent a lot of us home revisiting our love of Little Boots, a love we often fail to acknowledge.
