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Much like Robyn, Little Boots, and Annie, La Roux is another European indie-dance commodity with outlandish hair and songs seemingly too brash for regular radio play in the States. Yet flame-maned vocalist Elly Jackson and keyboardist/coproducer Ben Langmaid somehow infiltrated America with kinetic electropop track “Bulletproof,” a wizened tale about resisting the urge to return to romance gone bad. (Surprisingly, the song even scored heavy summer rotation on local Top 40 station Y100.) But in the year since that single’s release, Jackson has been reticent about collaborations with other artists — she boldly told UK paper the Guardian that “Lady Gaga’s not my thing” — although she did hook up with Kanye West for a remix of La Roux’s “In for the Kill.”
Unfortunately, while the 22-year-old singer fought a protracted bout of bronchitis and eventually pharyngitis, her voice gave out in late July, just as the duo was set to unleash La Roux’s live show upon South Florida. Two shows were canceled — one at Culture Room and another at Mansion. Thankfully, though, the dates were soon rescheduled. And though the band’s early-November makeup concert in Fort Lauderdale revealed that Jackson’s vocal cords haven’t fully recovered, this Wednesday’s live performance on the Beach remains a mandatory post-Basel party.
