It’s a testament to her humility and tenacity that Kid Sister shows no signs of getting fed up yet. Four months after the long-awaited release of her debut album, Ultraviolet, Kid Sis is still playing shows that don’t properly showcase her formidable stage presence and talents.
Backed solely by a DJ, Kid Sister pounced on the stage at the Roxy last night, opening with “Right Hand Hi,” the mind-bogglingly polyrhythmic lead single from her album. Immediately going into “Life On TV,” it was clear that no ammount of speed-rapping or booty shaking was going to leave this artists winded or in need of a break.
Dressed in a pretty dress and heels with her hair in a braid, Kid Sister stood out in a room full mostly of dudes who only occasionally put their right hands high. Undaunted by an audience that wasn’t visibly familiar with her material, Kid Sis powered through her seven song set, almost all pulled from her album, except “I’ll House You,” a track recorded for a Reebok promotion last year. Pogoing around, never losing her breath or her lyrics, if you weren’t a fan you would at least have been won over by her commitment to her performance. Not since Gwen Stefani has anyone assaulted a stage with a microphone quite like Kid Sister.
But most of us already knew this. In fact, after several years of playing b-girl on tour with her brother (of Flosstradamus) and/or boyfriend (A-Trak), the solo artist has been relegated to the same role. For the last two nights in LA, Kid Sister came on stage as the middle act between the weekly resident, Marshall Barnes, and the night’s headliner, TRV$/A-Trak. A-Trak, it seems, has been tapped to take the place of the late DJ AM, while TRV$ (Travis Barker), bangs on his drums in accompaniment. It’s essentially percussion karaoke with a live DJ (and Lil Jon, who offered a rap on one mid-set track), and while there’s clearly an audience for this arrangement, why it comes at the expense of building an audience for Kid Sister is ridiculous. She deserves to headline her own show, with a full band, and play a full set.
She returned to the stage at the end of TRV$/A-Trak’s set do perform “Pro-Nails,” but just before Kid Cudi came out to do his “Pursuit of Happiness.” It seems, even in the encore, Kid Sis isn’t allowed the last word. During her set, even though the levels were off on her vocals during “Daydreaming” (as she commented herself), we could hear through the din a polished, in-tune, voice of a woman with more versatile talents ready to shine, whenever she gets the right forum.
Kid Sister’s Setlist:
Right Hand Hi
Life On TV
I’ll House You
Big n Bad
Let Me Bang
Control
Daydreaming
Switchboard
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