Lola Kirke Live at The Fonda
The moment I walked into The Fonda on the evening of March 28, 2022, I knew I was in for a concert experience unlike any other. For one, the age group that was slowly filling up the general admission floor all looked older than me even with masks on. I’m talking about people my parents’ age, people who might’ve needed to call a babysitter or a relative to stay with the kids on their night out, which contrasted so much with the regular indie, teen-to-late 20s crowd I was used to. For another, I must’ve forgotten that this was a country concert because I was completely taken aback seeing people wearing jeans with bedazzled pockets, cowboy boots, and the kind of floppy flat-top hats you see at Coachella. I was in very unfamiliar territory.
Luckily, I wasn’t alone for the entire time. I ended up making friends with an older woman at the concert who shared much of her life story with me and how much she loved Elle King, including the fact that she had a fourteen-year-old son waiting at home for her (thus proving my point about the majority of this crowd being parents). But I had a lot to teach her too because she’d never even heard of Lola Kirke, whose music I loved and who I’d interviewed for Unpublished earlier that month. It was fun engaging in that exchange and crossing that generational divide that might’ve kept us from having a conversation and getting to know one another.
Not to mention that it made watching Lola’s opening set performance that much more interesting and exciting, though she did that on her own just with her outfit. I loved seeing her run out onto the stage in her head-to-toe pink ensemble, which included a pink bralette top with long fringe, a pair of pink cowboy boots, and hot pink leather pants. For me at least, the clothes that a musician chooses to wear to play live is part of the performance just as much as the music, vocals, and banter. In this case, it was clear that she wanted to pay homage to her country-influenced music, promote her upcoming record Lady for Sale (releasing April 29th), make a fashion statement, and make it hard for any audience member to look away from the hot pink vision.
Throughout the set, Lola showed off the thick rich tone of her voice and fun, upbeat dance moves like kicking her feet, running in place, and rocking from side to side. Because all of the songs she played were from her new record, it was amazing for me to compare the studio versions to the live performances and find that there wasn’t actually that much difference.
But what did make the live versions a little more special was how I was able to literally feel the drums, bass, and trademark country guitar twang through the concert venue floor and my whole body. Lola’s voice, which frequently embraced healthy, strong belts, was big and loud and held its own in the space, even when she was moving around a lot on stage. And as anyone knows, that’s hard and impressive to pull off. During the night, I realized that she sounds a lot like Miley Cyrus if she still sang country music. Lola is the answer to that absence.
At some moments, it did feel like the songs were too sonically similar, meaning that while there was good consistency and exploration of country and 80s synths, hearing her play the songs one after another would blend them together. But the song that completely stood out was her rendition of one of her album singles, “Better Than Any Drug,” making it the highlight of the night.
In the music video for the song, Lola walks around a grand, empty house singing and dancing, but the kind that had her sliding, jumping, crawling, and throwing herself on the floor and walls. The kind that is a form of freeing personal expression rather than a performance that is meant to show off her dance mastery. It was incredible seeing her take that same energy to the stage, lying down with her back to the floor and singing, sensually dancing in ways that felt true to her, and overall just making it a fun and inspiring few minutes for herself and the audience.
Even with the audience waiting for the legendary Elle King to take the stage next, Lola made that set her own, left me wanting more, and introduced herself to folks who might’ve never heard of her otherwise. Once she exited the stage, I remember my new friend said, “She’s really good. Maybe not pure country but still good.” What more could you ask for?