I’ve decided I need to develop a Lady Sovereign complex. That’s right, you heard me, and if you don’t like it, then f*ck you!

Wow, that was easier than I thought. It turns out being loud, opinionated and a tad on the boastful side isn’t that hard. Doing it while rapping and while somehow maintaining a level of adorableness that makes you want to eat a bowl of rainbow sherbet just for the hell of it, however, is another story. But Lady Sovereign can pull it off no problem, which is why she’s got the record label and the fans and the rad silver Nike hightops, not me. Go figure.

During her performance at El Rey Theater, it only took Lady Sovereign about three minutes to whip the crowd into such a frenzy that we barely noticed when she dumped her beer all over us. With her DJ providing back-up vocals and music from her new album, Jigsaw, as well as a live drummer who was pounding Red Bull all night (presumably to keep up with Lady Sov), she owned the stage like a bully owns the playground. And when she rapped the lyrics to “So Human” (I’m so human/ it’s ok/ for me to feel this way), I found myself wondering if she really was. (Maybe more appropriate are lyrics from “”Love Me or Hate Me, “I don’t dance/ I just grin/ it’s the alien Sovereign.”) Even in less aggressive, more heartfelt songs like “Jigsaw,” she unapologetically broke the ultra-feminine, seductress mold that most female vocalists are shaped by (aside from some cheeky boob-grabs), and stuck to her saggy-jeaned, British grime roots. Her set was only an hour long, but proved once again that white women can rap, and that being short in stature has nothing to do with being short on personality.

Words by Christine Spehar, photos by Parts Department

[correction: "Love Me or Hate Me" lyrics quoted are from the Lady Sovereign mix feat. Miss Elliott. Also she does have an affinity for Adidas over Nike]

Nerd rock is back. Actually, I don’t know if it was ever gone, or if it ever existed in the first place, but suffice to say it’s here now in the form of Chester French. Formed by two Harvard freshmen in 2003 and named for the American sculptor who built the Lincoln Memorial, the nerdyness extends not only to their roots, but also to the duo’s stage presence.  Take their recent show at Hollywood’s El Rey Theater, opening for Lady Sovereign, for instance. Front man D.A. Wallach bounds on stage in ill-fitting red trousers (you know, the kind of pants your grandma would suggest you wear on your first day school), a somewhat dingy white t-shirt and a mop of unruly strawberry blonde hair. Guitarist Maxwell Drummey is a skinny white kid with a backwards haircut, sunglasses that engulf his face and a skirt.

The music, on the other hand, is not so nerdy. Wallach proceeds to whale out some telling lyrics with such in-your-face energy that I find myself dancing and singing along to the catchy chorus despite myself. “But you feel so clean/ Well she craves affection/ So I use protection/ And I know she loves me/ She loves everybody,” he belts out, over riffs that meld glam rock with surfer melodies, funky baselines and even some hip-hop beats. The juxtaposition of preppy and party escalates from there— Drummey strips off his cross-dressing attire at one point to reveal his, um, heroin-chic chest, and the climax of the evening just might be when Wallach jumps off stage into the audience, flinging sweat upon the screaming masses and jumping up and down with mosh-pit style enthusiasm.

I’ve just discovered an important truth: nerd rock is hot.

Words by Christine Spehar, photos by Parts Department

Lady Sovereign is small but mighty. If you don’t know, you better ask somebody!