Lady Sovereign at the Knitting Factory last night. Firstly, realized that KF were kinda breaking this whole U.K. thing NY-side, with a back-to-back Kano/Roll Deep bill in August, whoa.

Anyway, it was all there: the curfew-breaking shit-talking kid sister routine, poise, swagger, side pony tail (and this weird interruption of cornrows sliding towards it), Sex Pistols shirt, pants just falling off.

She was visibly weak, and the whole “I’m not feelin awwright, I’m iww” thing was reliable confirmation. Whether it was McDonalds or just the fact that she is 18 years old and packing rooms in New York and therefore probably getting really drunk while she’s around, the important thing is:

She is devastatingly charming.

Skipping CDs? Okay. Promises/threats of vomiting onstage? Fine. Nothing really seemed to matter. Her presence = opiate. At one point, she said something to the effect of “this whole thing’s going to turn into a comedy show.” Well, the whole thing was funny, but also kinda touching. I don’t know, she had that kid-human “I’m sick and I want my mum and my couch” thing going on, which was plain honest. She didn’t whine and didn’t overapologize; she got going when she could and she seemed really pretty happy to be there. I hope she never gets old.