Review: Pop star transforms massive arena into intimate supper club

Laufey was standing in front of a packed crowd of particular adoring fans at Oakland Arena Yet an arena-rock show wasn t quite the vibe she was looking for Instead she had something else in mind Welcome to my jazz club declared the Icelandic pop star whose lately distributed third album A Matter of Time does indeed currently sit atop Billboard s Jazz Albums chart Truth be described however there wasn t much jazz to be heard on this night Anyone who thinks otherwise should have been at the Monterey Jazz Festival over the weekend and heard Dianne Reeves or Rene Marie now that s jazz vocal work Monday s show was more an evening of traditional pop vocals which is the album category where Laufey s previous album Bewitched triumphed at the Grammys but with a decidedly vintage twist And people often confuse vintage with jazz despite the latter being a living breathing and evolving art form that is still going strong in However we want to categorize Laufey pronounced LAY-vay the fact is that she s got a sound that has deeply and quite unexpectedly connected with younger listeners To an older listener her songs may sound like standards ones that somehow have remained hidden to the populace since the s and s Of unit that would be a very good trick since Laufey is still just -years old and these are original compositions A younger listener might not associate her sound to standards but rather just intuitively realize that Laufey is connecting through her music to another time and place In her first of two consecutive nights in the Bay Area with a stop at Chase Center in San Francisco set for Monday Laufey was trying to balance a lot of different elements as she took the stage at around p m to perform a nearly two-hour show She s cultivating that whole jazz supper club vibe but doing so with a string section that brings a lush symphonic feel while also working a big stage with pop-music production elements a castle setting as a backdrop a four-member dance crew a secondary stage connected to the main one via catwalk etc Yet it all managed to come together nicely as the show opened like Clockwork in something resembling an old Busby Berkeley musical number kids ask your grandparents as the star worked in front of the castle-like set complete with two grand curving staircases and accompanying dancers dressed up in outfits resembling old-school cigarette girls It was straight-up s supper club meets fairytale fantasy land a weird combo that somehow served as the perfect setting for Laufey to spin her intoxicating tales of lost love self reflection and other highly relatable topics for listeners of any age Laufey performs at Oakland Arena on Sept Jim Harrington Bay Area News Group Her vocals are often likened to Ella Fitzgerald a lofty comparison if there ever was one but also one that I can t hear in the slightest and there are plenty of Norah Jones references which also don t fit like a glove It s likely better to just shelf all those comparisons and just enjoy Laufey for what she is a versatile singer with a medium-sized voice who deals her words with subtle conviction and allows lyrical moments to linger in just the right proportion She s about touch and feel rather than power and range And above all else she s about connecting with the crowd She does so in song for sure but also in the way she merely chats up her fans in a fashion that feels more like a pajama party than a concert It s OK she remarked about all the talking onstage in Oakland Its like a chat a big chat room Related Articles Yusuf Cat Stevens forced to postpone upcoming U S tour Hardly Strictly Bluegrass artists to see at this th annual festival Doja Cat is coming to the Bay Area Here s how to get tickets Photos th Monterey Jazz Festival Bay Area events calendar for Oct - Conversely Laufey can also seem to utterly lose herself in a song as if she s crooning not to a crowd of but rather just to herself Sometimes I m in my element and I look up and I m like Oh there are people watching a lot of people she confessed Besides crooning through particular two-dozen numbers Laufey took the time to showcase her prowess on both guitar and cello the latter of which came into play when the artist took to the small secondary stage to perform the instrumental Cuckoo Ballet while appropriately enough a pair of dancers exhibited off their ballet moves She d also sit down at the piano for what would turn out to be one of the best moments of the night This next song is a little bit dramatic Laufey declared as an introduction to the gorgeous tearjerker Too Little Too Late But I tend to do that The crowd was still very much behind the star as she reached the homestretch filling up the latter portion of the show with such winners as Goddess Tough Luck Snow White and From the Start Are you having fun petitioned Laufey who at once received her answer very much in the affirmative from the enthusiastically vocal crowd Thank God It would be so embarrassing if you weren t Suki Waterhouse opened the concert with her own roughly half-hour set of fun pop songs The singer who is in a relationship with A-list actor Robert Pattinson did a great job warming the crowd up for Laufey as she moved through such likable cuts as Moves To Love and Good Looking It s been such an honor to get to do this every night Waterhouse remarked of getting to open for Laufey on this tour Laufey setlist Clockwork Lover Girl Dreamer Falling Behind Silver Lining Bored Too Little Too Late Bewitched Seems Like Old Times Valentine Fragile While You Were Sleeping Let You Break My Heart Again Carousel Forget-Me-Not Cuckoo Ballet Mr Eclectic Castle in Hollywood Promise Goddess Tough Luck Snow White From the Start Sabotage Encore I Wish You Love Letter to My Year Old Self