AZEALIA BANKS at the Opera House, Sunday, October 8. Rating: NNNNN
When Azealia Banks emerged from the ether with 212 in 2011, she appeared destined for stardom. The song felt like the work of a fully-formed artist: an acid-tongued dynamo capable of singing heart-stopping high notes one minute and dipping into profane, 90s-inflected New York City roughneck rap the next. The music and fashion worlds quickly fell in love with her, with many fans feeling like we had witnessed the arrival of a new superstar.
We all know what happened next. Banks’s sharp facility for language and propensity for outspokenness caused more trouble outside of the booth than success inside of it. Controversy and label issues delayed her debut album, Broke With Expensive Taste, for years so that when it finally dropped in 2014, it scored with die-hard fans and critics, but failed to reach the crossover success many felt she was primed for.
It would take her another three years to perform live in Toronto. And when Banks took the stage 70 minutes after her announced set time, clad in black gloves and a black blazer overtop a dress with a ruffled skirt, she looked like the master of her domain. She powered through recent single Chi Chi with exuberance and gusto, forcefully rapping every word of her tongue-twisting bars and receiving huge whoops back from the rabid crowd.
When Banks followed up with Gimme A Chance, a buoyant cut from Broke With Expensive Taste, the full scale of her magnetism was evident. She grinned, radiating a joy that only served to whip the crowd further into a lather. Mid-way through the song, she was joined by two dancers, and dipped into a series of choreographed stutter steps with them, before doing a slight snake wave reminiscent of the dancing in her Missy Elliott-influenced Chasing Time video.
Next, DJ Nino Brown – the local opener doing double duty as Banks’s DJ – dropped the spare, eerie open for Desperado, leading to another eruption from the audience and making it clear that not only would the crowd continue to ratchet up their excitement, but that Banks would respond in kind. She stuck out her tongue and bounced from one side of the stage to the other, exuding pure glee.
She continued her control of the 900 or so fans at the Opera House with powerful stage presence, accentuating songs with soaring hooks like Luxury and Chasing Time with extended a capella intros that showed off her impressive vocal range.
After starting an intro for Miss Amor, she stopped to ask the crowd if they knew what the introductory words of the song meant. She was met with slight hesitation and silence. “It’s about a woman who’s having a daydream about a man, and she’s masturbating,” she said. The room broke into laughter and so did she. The moment reflected the clear elation visible on her face all night, and added a bit of cheeky provocation into the show.
By the time Banks started an a capella version of the bridge to 212, the crowd was at a fever pitch. The resulting sing-along was cathartic bliss, chanting the most bawdy of her lyrics – “I bet that cunt getting eaten” – with a force that seemed to shake the floor.
Listening to the audience, it was almost as though the last six years of controversy, stalled release dates and commercial disappointments didn’t happen at all, and all that did happen was Banks releasing a strong, genre-bending body of work that remains unique in style, songcraft and tone.
After 212 ended, she stepped off stage, smiling, waving and blowing kisses to the audience, looking every bit the complex, joyous, virtuosic portrait of America’s sweetheart we thought she would be when we first discovered her.
