REVIEW: Kesha’s Love was SPAC’s Drug
08/18 @ SPAC, Saratoga Springs
Photos by Jamie Sward/High Rise Media
“It’s a bold choice to start a show with your biggest hit, let alone a hit with a line purposefully tweaked, but Kesha has never been shy.”
Walking through the crowd at SPAC on Tuesday felt like being transported back in time. Everywhere you turned, you were guaranteed to see cheetah print, lace, leather, neon hair, and hot pants. Multiple 20-somethings were even taking pictures with digital cameras. I went to the bathroom only to look down and notice glitter on my shirt despite not touching anything since entering.
Two things were distinctly possible— either I hit my head and woke up in 2010 or I was at a Kesha concert. I’m happy to report it was the latter.
Erika Jayne, DJ Pretty Mess, was the first act. She walked onto stage confident and ready to get the party started. She played mixes of recognizable songs (prompting a group of guys running late to jog to their seats yelling “aw man, they’re already playing bangers!”), interspersed with originals. One song in particular, “How Many Fucks?,” was the standout earworm. The lyrics “How many fucks do I give? Zero,” prompted audience members to raise up their hands to make 0’s in tune with the beat. Jayne perfectly set the tone for an evening that felt like a techno-pop celebration.
After Jayne got the crowd nice and noisy, Chromeo emerged to keep the audience’s energy high. Walking out, they posed in the center of a small circle made by their equipment — a guitar, a bass, keyboards, synthesizers, and a talk box, held up by illuminated mannequin legs. By the look of their set up alone, it was clear the duo was going to do something unique.
The energy was absolutely infectious as Chromeo played their electro-funk set. The audience found themselves enthusiastically nodding along and dancing to the beats with chair rattling bass. The singer and guitarist, Dave 1, remarked with a huge grin that they play “funk to make you smile, funk to make you dance” which was entirely evident, especially when they played their main hit, “Fancy Footwork,” which immediately got the crowd moving.
Soon after, the stage turned a hazy pink. A recording of Kesha came over the speakers. In a rather mystical voice, she explained, “Tonight, we will be transformed… Are you ready for freedom?”
Emerging from the floor behind a podium, Kesha adorned a baby pink, gauzy corset and skirt with large, matching wings. It’s fitting that she looked a bit like a modern imagining of cupid, because she was about to show the audience an abundance of love.
But interspersed with that love? Righteous indignation.
The first words she uttered were “we don’t stand abuse in my house, so put your middle fingers up. You know what to do,” before singing the edited opening line of her iconic single “TikTok”: “wake up in the morning like, fuck P Diddy,” a response to the ongoing investigations into Sean Combs. It’s a bold choice to start a show with your biggest hit, let alone a hit with a line purposefully tweaked, but Kesha has never been shy.
She boldly declared “my intention is freedom from my past, through my life’s work. I wrote these songs and they were taken from me. Will you help me take them back?” referring to her legal issues with her previous producer, Dr. Luke, who she publicly accused of sexual assault in 2014, but was not let out of her six album contract with him until she fulfilled it in 2023. Her newest album, . (Period), is the debut album on her independently owned record label, Kesha Records. The crowd, aware of this years-long legal dispute, enthusiastically cheered.
It’s clear that Kesha is free of fear and open to love. A few mere songs into the setlist, she and her dancers went into the crowd, walking though most of the perimeter of the indoor seating at SPAC. She asked the crowd to touch her, cooed at the young children present, and grabbed hands with a very excited older woman, yet the crowd was deeply respectful. No one rushed her security — everyone wanted to give Kesha her space to do what she does best.
Continuing the tone set by Erika Jayne and Chromeo, Kesha’s set felt like she was set up in front of a DJ at a party. Her dancers complemented her stage presence, the background — a gigantic circular screen that almost looked like a ferris wheel — flashed lights and played visuals of the lyrics to enhance the crowd’s ability to sing along. She and her touring staff even made sure to keep the people on the lawn in mind. The staff recording the set for projection onto the screens, didn’t simply point the camera. The camera was worked into Kesha’s choreography, giving the audience seamless visuals from unique perspectives, almost like they were walking around on stage themselves.
Kesha has so many hits that the setlist could have gone on forever. To combat that, select songs were blended together to create medleys. Most notably, “Cannibal” (“carnivore, animal, I am a cannibal, I eat boys up, you better run”) ended with her chasing her dancers with a large prop knife, leading into her song “Backstabber” (“you’re such a backstabber, oh girl, you’re such a shit-talker, and everybody knows it”).
This was one of the several brilliant things about the show — the pacing. All of Kesha’s hits and some of her deep cuts made it onto the setlist, but she still had time to interact with the audience. At times, between songs, she would sit in silence and just look out into the crowd. Sometimes she would stretch her arms out to her full wingspan, tilt her head back, and take everything in, as if in a deep, meditative yoga pose. She would look fans in the orchestra section in the eye and tell them “I love you too!” At one point a fan asked her to take her phone and make a video. She made the time to do just that.
Nothing felt rushed. Kesha is a free woman. And she is damn sure she is going to enjoy it.
Almost too soon, it was time for the show to come to a close. The audience cheered, knowing she had to be back for a few missing hits. Kesha soon emerged again, from behind the podium, which now projected the image of stained glass windows. She wore a golden outfit, complete with a halo-like ring, conjuring the image of religious icons. She announced “let’s make this our church.”
Unsurprisingly, she went into her song about forgiveness, “Praying.”
Despite all of the packed shows I’ve seen at SPAC over the years, many from artists with highly recognizable singles, I’ve never heard the crowd sing as loud and clear as they did during “Praying.” The audience’s voices, louder than Kesha, echoed off the walls: “well you almost had me fooled, taught me that I was nothing without you, oh, but after everything you’ve done, I can thank you for how strong I have become…”
After a brush with the serious, Kesha was sure to go back to her roots with some of her first big singles. She ended the night with “Your Love is My Drug” and “We R Who We R.”
In spite of what she’s been through, Kesha knows that the way to heal is through community, and she gave us a taste of it that night in Saratoga.
Kesha is still touring until the end of the month. To keep up with her, follow her on Instagram @kesha.
