Walking through the city at night can be very peaceful. People are home, unwinding and getting ready for bed. There’s a tiny taste of fall on its way with a light breeze here and there. And yet even with the peace outside, so much can happen inside. In a house, an office, and ESPECIALLY a venue.
The arrival of Sophie Ellis-Bextor in Portland was a long time coming. Her career has spanned almost 30 years, starting with a brief stint in the late 90s in the group Theaudience, and being followed by great success as a solo musician in the new millennium, beginning with the chart topping collaboration “Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)” with Spiller. Ellis-Bexter has gone on to release seven studio albums and continue to have a lucrative career in the UK, with a balance of chart success and critical acclaim for her exploration of different genres and cultures in her music.
NOW, as much as those that got it the first time are entitled to brag about, like the adoring fan in the audience who mentioned being a fan for 25 years, the rest of us more likely than not became acquainted with Ellis-Bextor thanks to her viral hit “Murder on the Dancefloor”. In the same vein as the double success of “Running Up That Hill” by Kate Bush, this song is no stranger to popularity with the masses, as it was already in the top 10 in nine countries in 2001. It’s with this song, however, that she was able to come and light up what would have otherwise been a quiet night in Portland like no other.
The show can really be summed up into one term: kicky dancing. Something that Ellis-Bextor proclaimed she likes to do a lot of. And who can blame her? By the end of the night we were all sweaty from our own kicky dancing. Opening the performance with a cover of “Crying at the Discotheque” by Alcazar really helped set the tone of the night, as Ellis-Bextor is known for her retro inspired music, and this song fits that perfectly being from the early 2000s but holding a nostalgic air from the 70s.
Taking a moment to chat, Ellis-Bextor shares how exciting it is to be in Portland for the first time. She walked through some neighborhoods and mentioned she likes to look up facts to share with the audience of each city she goes to, where I was shocked to learn that maraschino cherries were actually invented in Portland! I guess you know what they say, you learn something new at every Sophie Ellis-Bextor concert. That’s how the saying goes, right?
Ellis-Bextor lit up the night with more favorites, like “Music Gets the Best of Me” (included some kick dancing) and “Heartbreak, Make Me a Dancer” (more kick dancing). With each song, you could feel the crowd get lost in the music, unable to fight the banging drums and synths as the night went on. At a couple points in the show, Ellis-Bextor brought out a spinning wheel that she explained includes various songs spanning different eras in her career, along with sections for her or the audience to choose. The first was “Wild Forever”, from her 2023 album Familia, and the second spin landed on “Me and My Imagination”, the 2007 single from her album Trip the Light Fantastic.
With so many songs under her belt, you would think Ellis-Bextor would, like most artists, feel like she needed to stay inside the confines of her own discography. This could not be further from the truth, with the singer filling up the room with so much passion, you’d think the songs were written and produced by her instead of the original artist. Aside from the aforementioned Alcazar cover, Ellis-Bextor touched on “Take Me Home” by Cher and “Like a Prayer” by Madonna, keeping us in the same sparkling 80s inspired mood all night long.
The night finished with a booming performance of “Murder on the Dancefloor” with everyone and their mom singing along to the earworm. Ellis-Bextor returned to the stage for an encore, playing “Bittersweet”, a banging single from her 2010 album Make a Scene. With the audience hanging on every word she said, Ellis-Bextor used this to pull the crowd to the back of the venue for her second encore from the top of the merch booth counter. She played a beautiful unplugged version of “A Pessimist is Never Disappointed”, from her days as the frontwoman for Theaudience. We ended the night on a more wistful but personal note, mirroring the lyrics hidden behind her big danceable hits and leaving us to consider every word she said on that much more of a deeper level.
SOPHIE ELLIS-BEXTOR
Photos + Review by Carlos Hueso | Exclusively for Music, Why Not!
