Yelle warns Chicago to dance or die

October 21, 2008, at Logan Square Auditorium

By Selena Fragassi
Published: October 24th, 2008 | 10:25am

There’s something about Chicago’s Logan Square Auditorium that feels like walking into a high school gymnasium on homecoming night. Maybe it’s the uniformed cop guarding the door, doling out wristbands. Or the novice DJ spinning Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and Kelly Clarkson in between band breaks. Or the audience, the median age of high school seniors, engaging in familiar propositions for beer between bathroom stalls.

But on this night, innocence was checked at the door as everyone awaited the crowning of the queen: a racy French import by the name of Yelle.

From her first moments on the riser stage, crowned by a white hood that looked more akin to a KKK rally than a pep rally, Yelle proved she was as colorful and edgy as her often notorious outfits. Dressed in a red-fringed, black-and-white striped top, she was reminiscent of an anime heroine, but with a face that easily could have been ripped off the pages of French Vogue.

With the first note of “Tristesse/Joie,” the svelte ingénue quickly made the platform her very own catwalk, stalking back and forth, and getting even the shyest wallflowers on the dance floor with hyper ’80s-inspired performances of “Tristesse/Joie,” “Ce jeu,” and “A Cause des Garcons,” the best of this year’s addictive debut, Pop Up (Caroline).

Although the title of her album is the only lick of it in English, once translated, the secrets of Yelle’s lyrics dissect her wholesome appearance and shine a spotlight on the 25-year-old as a femme fatale with killer songwriting ability.

Blasting the auditorium with songs about everything from lesbian temptations on “Les Femmes,” vibrator games on “Mon Meilleur Ami”, and rappers with short dicks on “Je Veux te Voir,” Yelle took advantage of the non-chaperoned room and banked on the sexual overtones that catapulted her first hit, “Je Veux te Voir.”

Originally called “Short Dick Cuizi,” the song garnered major attention on Yelle’s MySpace page when it was first posted and became a viral hit that led to a record deal. A slam against French rapper Cuizinier, it boasts such unapologetic lyrics as “I wanna see you in a porno, in action with your dick shaped like a steak fry or maybe just shoestring fries … there’s nothing orgasmic about you … you’ll be made an ass of by a girl who raps better than you.”

For this American crowd, her songs could’ve been about lollipops and puppies for all they knew — the upbeat tempos and contagious rhythms were enough to get everyone moving and that was all that mattered.

Yelle herself lead the crowd jumping and writhing through song after song as her drummer and keyboardist commanded “Dance or Die” on their matching T-shirts. Clearly, it was taken either as a threat or challenge, because as the night wore on, so did the energy, which climaxed in the last note of the last song. It’s something so rare to see, but the mark of a true performer and someone deserving of the crown.