Gig Review: La Femme Somerset House Summer Series
Captivating Melodies Under Open Skies: La Femme Kicks Off the Spectacular Somerset House Summer Series
Branded as a staple summer experience, this year’s line up includes Alison Goldfrapp, Beabadoobee, The Comet is Coming, Gabriels, Interpol, Tinariwen and Young Fathers. The eleven night series offers unmissable acts from across the world in an intimate and immersive setting. Kicking off the 2023 edition of the Somerset House Summer Series is psych-rock collective La Femme with support from Sam Quealy.
Sam Quealy
The last hours of London’s sun hangs in the July sky, it’s a school night and there’s an excited buzz filling up the courtyard. The stone square is already pretty pregnant with an audience who have deliberately got down early to catch their favourite techno pop princess, Sam Quealy.
Opening with Sad Summer Days, the stage and the crowd are hers from the first beat. Dressed to the nines in a kilt, corset and monster thigh highs, Quealy and her two dancers take it in their stride to make themselves known. Quealy takes us through her ever expanding catalogue of wildly erotic and genre-bending tracks. Big Cat, Klepto and Follow the Night emit as much infectious energy as the music videos do. As a member of legendary vogue house Commes des Garcons, it’s no surprise that the tight choreography accompanied with Quealy’s vocals and stamina, leaves the audience hypnotised. Like and athlete fighting for their life one dip at at time, Quealy brings the vibrancy of the vogue balls to the Strand. Sam Quealy exudes this raw, magnetic energy that only a few possess, she is already an icon, just not everybody knows it yet.
La Femme
Famous for their musical collages of sounds, La Femme have been sharing their offerings since 2010. Founded in Biarritz by Sacha Got and Marlon Mangée, the first full La Femme album, Psycho Tropical Berlin set strong foundations and had you sharing Sur la planche 2013 at any given opportunity. Mystère arrived in 2016, expanding the band’s following along the way. 2021’s Paradigmes was welcomed with open arms as was Teatro lúcido in November last year. Now, here we are in 2023, ten years since their first album release, with Paris-Hawaï.
The sun has set now and everybody has loosened up a bit. The four keyboards stand in a line on the stage and after a brief introduction from a man in a cowboy hat, they are met with the french collective dressed in sharp white suits. Opening with Fugue Itallene, its alluring intro cloaks over the audience, broken by bursts of brass that light up the courtyard, the galloping crescendo fuses with sirens and spooky synth sounds to the tracks end, it’s the perfect curtain raiser.
Packshot, Où va le monde, Cool Colarado come after and it’s made clear that tonight is going to be a celebration of greatest hits compared to a new album promo show. Although we are treated to the soft, surf sounds of Paris-Hawaï with Aloha Baby sandwiched somewhere in the middle of the set. Sam Quealy joins the group (but stage dives instantly) for Foutre le bordel, the slick white blazers have come off now, Mangée is bouncing around with his keyboard on his shoulder, Got spins and stomps with his guitar. It’s a party. The propelling LEDs at the front of the stage paired with the trippy visuals projected on the screen at the back elevate La Femme’s vibrancy as artists - holding our hand and pulling us into their wonderful world.
A welcome breather comes with It’s Time to Wake Up as the twelfth of twenty tracks. The pace then goes back into fifth gear right up until the encore Tu T’en Lasses, ending the night at a more comforting speed.