All photos and videos provided courtesy of Melvin Ryan Tan – follow him on Twitter.
On Tuesday, I went to Rough Trade East to see Robyn do a very small and intimate in-store appearance where she performed a few songs off of her new album "Body Talk Part 1" and I have to say, it was the most enjoyable Robyn shows I've ever been to. For me, it was especially exciting as I've seen just about every London show Robyn has done and to hear new material finally was a treat for the senses.
Robyn sang six songs – "Dancing On My Own", "Be Mine", "Dancehall Queen", "Fembot", an electrified version of "Hang With Me" and closed out the show with her massive hit "With Every Heartbeat" that you can watch below. The new version of "With Every Heartbeat" really grabbed me – it has such an amazing re-inventive feel to it with the drums and I felt very lucky to have witnessed Robyn performing the song like this.
What I loved about this show was that Robyn did a little giggle after each song and she seemed like she was having the time of her life up there, messing about with her keyboardist mic during the electronic vocodes for "Fembot" and even admitting to the crowd that she hadn't quite rehearsed – something I couldn't quite tell actually – she seems as polished as ever.
Robyn is doing a full show tonight at Heaven and it's sure to be a huge crowd. I felt fortunate to see her perform in such an intimate setting and more pop stars should do this sort of thing…that is getting in indie record stores to promote your pop record and meeting the people who are buying it – that's real social networking and Robyn is setting a great example here. Also – how amazing to see Darren Hayes in the crowd enjoying the show!