Live Review: Christine & The Queens, OKENYO

It was an early contender for gig of the year, no question. Led by the powerhouse that is OKENYO – in two-piece, lady-led mode – we were primed by an excellent support. Her Woman’s World is worth the price of admission alone. Think Missy Elliot but with more melody and Australian – just brilliant. 

Then Chris took the stage, bounding on in this album’s trademark flowing open red shirt and black pants, backed by a stacked band and six dancers. As she glided, strutted, pumped and slid across the stage the crowd literally squealed – her charm and magnetism made the room weak at the knees. All hips in a way Elvis and Prince would die for, and all power in a way Madonna and Beyonce would approve of. And yet original too. 

It’s not just the physical performance that did it – although jeez, we defy anyone else at the moment to be working that hard during a set – but the athleticism and sheer dynamism in her delivery. Chris’ music is so active and frankly, fresh. From opener Comme Si and into addictive as hell singles like Girlfriend she took us through “two albums, same problems – different ways to address them”. In lots of ways the two really are a progression, from the more timid moments of Chaleur Humaine – tonight given particularly beautiful treatment with a solo performance/dance of Paradis Perdus, Science Fiction, Saint Claude (played as an encore from up on the balcony), as well as the captivating and visually stunning Tilted. 

Newer tracks like 5 Dollars, Damn (What Must A Woman Do) and Doesn’t Matter had a different energy – more determination, if possible – but were just as impressive and rewarding. In between songs she chatted and charmed the hell out of us. “I’m allergic to your flowers – climate change is real – I just had to tell you cause I feel shitty,” she coughed, mocking us, and herself. She also told us how she learned simply to “stop trying to fit in”, therefore allowing “more free time to read, to watch TV, to breathe”; a pronouncement that saw us misfits cheer ever harder and dance even freer. Throughout the gig Chris’ shirt ripped, something she noted with a sort of embarrassment early, and later wore as a badge of honour, throwing pieces across the stage and eventually out into the crowd. 

“Yesterday I didn’t even know you, and now I will miss you like crazy,” she swooned to the room to end (and we swooned back). “But, like any good relationship, I must let you go,” she declared, closing the show with a traveling party as she danced and sung down the balcony stairs, from the back to the front, before being raised aloft in the middle of the crowd and finally landing on the stage to her last tune, “a gentle French lullaby”, her early (and much overlooked) dance track Intranquillité. We applauded again, she applauded us and thanked the amazing band and dancers, leaving with a solo sung line, “Please be tender, until I see you again.” Don’t leave it long, lady – we miss you already, too.