It might initially seem a risky gambit for Kesha to perform her 2009 hit “TiK ToK” so early in her set on Friday night (we’re talking the second number); sure sure. But Kesha circa 2023 is a performer reveling in a sense of artistic freedom and confounding expectations, so fuck it, out the door it goes. (And half the crowd duly started recording, maybe even for a TikTok clip of their own. Good on ’em.)
Quick backtrack: Kesha changing the name of her tour from “Gag Order” (after her most recent album) to “Only Love” served as a sign of intent: These shows would be an openhearted celebration of vulnerability and love and maybe a bit of throwing caution to the wind with no looking back. All missions accomplished with verve by the time she got to “Cannibal.”
Did the stark lighting early on remind of us David Bowie circa Station to Station? Yeah, but then again we are old. The audience at Hard Rock Live also was old, and young. And queer, and straight. And so on. Which was intriguing, to see these songs resonate with so many different people. Songs about partying (hard). Songs about heartbreak. And even songs about wanting a lover’s “liver served on a plate.” (There was a lot of screaming along, and laughing, and crying throughout.)
But yeah, the Bowie thing has got to us. Not to sound like a snoozer issue of Mojo magazine, but the aesthetic resonance hit us with the aforementioned stark lighting and minimal stage dressing on the first couple of songs — don’t worry, things got big later — and the gleeful trying on of new personae (the nun’s habit particularly), new sounds, new voices, and yeah, a pervasive feeling of being free from expectations. (Maybe free of controlling and manipulative producers too.)
That last point was writ large in a totally delirious “cover” (kinda, because Kesha co-wrote it) of Britney Spears’ “Till the World Ends.” And the new songs all fit right in, still dazed by the outer-limits “Eat the Acid” and the absolutely devastating emotional avalanche that was the spare ballad “Hate Me Harder.”
Kesha ended as she started, talking about love — and then roaring through “We R Who We R.” Point taken.
