“Not anymore, b—-es!”
It’s a nod (or a frantic finger point) to the legal troubles that have plagued the artist for the last near-decade involving Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald — in 2014, Kesha (full name Kesha Sebert and formerly stylized as Ke$ha) filed a lawsuit accusing the producer of sexual and emotional abuse, which a judge dismissed in 2016. Gottwald (who has worked with artists across the pop landscape, including Lady Gaga, Pink, Kelly Clarkson and Avril Lavigne) countersued for defamation.
The case left Kesha unable to publicly comment on the situation — the impetus for fifth album “Gag Order,” released in May and something of a reckoning on silencing, abuse and a loss of innocence wrapped up in ballads and dance beats. But since the two parties reached a settlement in June, Kesha is more articulate than ever.
“I never felt this free,” she said before sinking into a moody cover of “Till the World Ends,” the 2011 song co-written by Kesha and made iconic by Britney Spears — another woman in pop recently unshackled (for her, from a conservatorship controlled by her father). This choice of artist didn’t feel like a coincidence.
Throughout the evening, Kesha, now 36, was most compelling on her newer tracks, such as “Fine Line,” which was stripped back with just an electric guitar and Kesha’s talky, swooping vocals. “There’s a fine line between what’s entertaining and what’s just exploiting the pain,” she sang, slowing before the final blow. “But, hey, look at all the money we made off me.”
It’s a kind of catharsis that eluded her in her days playing the hard partyer. But despite how important personal context is to her recent work, the focus of the evening lay elsewhere. Weeks before her tour kicked off, it got a new name: the “Gag Order Tour” became the “Only Love Tour.”
“Life is too short, and I want to celebrate the freedom and love in my life with all of you,” she recently posted on Instagram.
It wouldn’t be a Kesha concert without glittery theatrics, especially with hits such as “Tik Tok” and “Your Love is My Drug” destined for the set list. “Backstabber” came wielding a dagger prop and “Raising Hell” featured a nun’s habit. These all-too-literal interpretations only highlighted the campy irony of the synthy hits, performed throughout the evening at nearly twice the speed of their studio recordings, against her more vulnerable artistry.
At times, her galactic dancing and quick delivery seemed designed to check the expectations box, squeezing a powerfully matured voice into songs produced by Gottwald during some of her most prominent years. Maybe she just wanted to get the audience (those in Halloween costumes indistinguishable from a fan base cloaked in sparkles and rave gear) dancing.
Her encore, however, was something of a miniature journey through her most vital moments: “We R Who We R,” the brat-rappy, trance pop track on unconditional acceptance, and “Praying,” the 2017 ballad that marked her return to the music business after five legal-battled years of silence. And while her journey since then has been tedious, it’s in the latter song that she says it herself: “Now the best is yet to come.”
