In her official Lollapalooza after show on this past Friday night at Chicago’s Lincoln Hall, London R&B queen Jessie Ware bantered with her adoring crowd with conversations that returned again and again to one region: anatomically speaking, the things down low.

In retrospect, the evening seemed to show the transition from youthful cares to the maturity of the adult world. The appropriately named SoCal band Pacific Air opened the evening with their light-hearted, catchy beats. Brothers in their early 20’s, Ryan and Taylor Lawhon exude “too cool for school.” One’s 90’s bleached, slicked back hair followed by the other’s carefully crafted, top heavy curls, they made for a great 2013 synth pop version of Saved by the Bell’s Zack and Slater. Added with the young enthusiasm of their touring bassist, Alex Lopez and guitarist Steven Lindenfelser, Pacific Air epitomized a band growing into their identity while spreading their catchy, perpetual-summer tunes. Chicagoans will surely cling to these memories during the hard winter months to come.

At midnight, Jessie took the stage. Opening with “Devotion,” her sultry voice, love-riddled lyrics and bluesy beats ooze the complexities of the adult world. And boy does that English girl know her R&B.

Alternating between soul singer and comedian, Ware thanked a couple of fans while receiving flowers, hinting for fans to bring more at future gigs, beginning a night of conversation and banter. As she reminisces about her last time in Chicago, she sees two familiar faces. “You were there!” she says joyfully surprised. “You two were there! You two were dancing so hard.” The crowd looks at the two men, shimmying without regard to the personal space of those around them. “I’m glad to see you’re still with each other and still dancing hard!” And with that, Ware lifts her arms high over her head to join the shimmy-train.

Jessie is a surprising fireball of enthusiasm, spunk and soul. Her pensive songs make her personality even more of a bombshell when the music ends. As she finishes a line about unrequited love, she mentions “You realize, I think we all need to just celebrate that ‘Wildest Moments’ is now in a Durex ad.” The crowd laughs, taken off guard by this curve ball. “I’m going to be throwing out condoms when you come to my next gigs,” she jokes. “Thanks Durex!”

From there, the night took an unexpected turn with colorful commentary filling the spaces between songs. First, Ware introduced “Taking In Water,” a song about her unlucky-in-love brother. “My brother is at home studying to be a doctor and he works very, very hard. He’s a very, very special guy; he’s also very, very unlucky in love. Always chooses the wrong guys. Boys can be really mean to boys! And they’ve been really mean to him and he’s just had the worst luck.”

As she finishes, a fan close-by yells for his friend, pointing to the guy next to him. “He’s a gay doctor!”

Excited, Jessie runs over to do an interview, speaking into the mic for fans to follow. Small pauses with inaudible answers follow the next series of questions, “Are you a gay doctor? Have you got a boyfriend? What kind of doctor?” With one last cheeky comment from the friend, Jessie bursts out laughing, ending the conversation with “You are naughty!”

The band clearly knows Ware’s tendency toward conversation and begins playing the next song, as almost a small shove to remind her why they’re there. Getting the hint, she concludes, “I just ruined the intro to my song; forget about fannies and willies.” And with that, she launches into “Taking In Water.” At the final note, Jessie turns to her new friend and says in exasperation, “All I could think about was fucking asses and fannies! It was awful. You ruined that for me!”

On the next rabbit trail, she shares another advertisement story. “Ok, can I tell you about the advert that I had in Florida?” She pauses for dramatic effect: “‘vaginal rejuvenation.’” The crowd laughs hysterically while she pulls a bewildered face . “Are you shitting me? What the fuck is ‘vaginal rejuvenation?’ And they only do that advert in Florida! How weird. So if you want a ‘vaginal rejuve,’ you need to go down to Florida…”

Technical issues overshadowed the set, but Jessie took it in stride making the awkward moments a part of the show. After the second time her crew member crossed the stage to adjust an unseen tech do-dad on her lower back, Jessie began booty-dancing and wiggling around. She clearly wasn’t going to let inconvenient tech problems change the evening’s tone.

The entire night was full of crowd interaction and storytelling. Ware reached her hands out to the fans continually, looked at their iphone pictures, chatted and continued triying to set up her brother. Despite her pensive, often sad tunes, Jessie is more than spunky. “So, the last time I was here I sang this line, ‘My friends wonder what is wrong with me.’ And someone shouted out ‘Ain’t nothin’ wrong with choo, girl!’ and it made me feel really special. And it was really all the gays being on my side. So, if you want to sing along, or shout out at this song, I don’t mind because I love it. And it reminds me of Chicago.” She certainly got her wish. Throughout the entirety of “What You Won’t Do For Love,” sassy commentary zinged her way from the audience.

“Seriously, though, I wish I could play every gig like this. It’s been so long since we’ve played in such a lovely, intimate space and it feels so nice! I kinda just want to really suck on the next album so I get downsized. It’s been so nice. And I recognize old faces.” She waved to her friends in the crowd and seemed truly touched by such a fun evening. Finally she had to end the fun. “This is our last song. I wish I had some more! I don’t. And it’s past my bedtime and it’s past yours. This has been the best gig in Chicago. It’s been better than the rest.”

It was a surprising, eventful show from an unexpectedly cheeky singer. Her comedic personality easily balanced her lyrics of soulful love-longing. If her music doesn’t make you love her, her quick wit certainly will.

Review and Photo by J.L. Greene

Jessie Ware (Facebook)