photos by Tim Griffin

Ladyhawke

"New Zealand rocker Ladyhawke may sing about Paris burning, but on Wednesday it was New York City that was on fire. At the headliner of the "Perez Hilton Presents" concert at the Fillmore at Irving Plaza, Ladyhawke was well-worth her witching-hour performance, featuring crowd-friendly renditions of "Back of the Van" and "My Delirium." Unfortunately, fellow co-headliner Ida Maria was a no-show because of illness. No matter. The two surprises Hilton pulled out of his sleeve certainly made up for it.

"I'm marveling that I was able to pull it off, because I've never put on a tour before," Hilton told MTV News. "The reason why I'm doing the tour, the reason I have a record label, the reason why I write about music on my Web site is because I think music lovers like sharing good music with other music lovers."...

...Last-minute surprise act Little Boots hit the stage sans her band mates (they were stuck across town) and performed solo with only a piano to accompany her. She thanked Hilton with a run through a haunting cover of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" and was followed by another surprise in Kat DeLuna, whose high-octane hip-swirling show made the walls sweat." [MTV]

By "across town", they mean at Bowery Ballroom where Little Boots also played on Wednesday night (9/16). Ida Maria was in fact a no-show, though the type of illness is unclear - it may have been a case of Perez-itis because she seemed to be doing okay when she performed at the Betsey Johnson fashion show a night or two earlier. Officially it became this:

Friday, September 18, 2009

Ida Maria will not be finishing the current Perez Hilton Presents Tour. She is suffering from total exhaustion and will be heading home to Norway to rest and be under Doctor's care. Her personal statement to everyone is:

Dear Friends and Fans. I am so very sorry but I cannot finish this tour. After touring in Scandinavia, Europe, the UK, Australia, Japan and the USA for 3 years straight I am just completely exhausted. I have learned that I am not a superwoman.

I love all the bands, musicians and crew on this tour. Go see these bands! I will be back and look forward to playing you my music both new and old. The new music is in forefront of my mind. Thank you all again. See you soon. I wish you peace.

Ida Maria

One night before the Irving show Ladyhawke played the Apple Store. More pictures from Irving Plaza (NSFW - there were strippers), below...

Continue reading "Ladyhawke, Little Boots, Semi-Precious Weapons & friends @ Irving Plaza in NYC (the Perez Hilton show) - pics (NSFW)"

'New York City concert was hotter than a whore in heat! So amazing!' - Perez Hilton

'Ida Maria appeared to be drunk and phoning it in' in DC, Sep 12 (Francis Chung)

"So, you'd assume that the self-proclaimed "queen of all media" would have been tweeting the crap out of Ida Maria walking off stage at her Boston show on Monday night. Perhaps a few scathing blog posts on his 20-million-hits-per-day web site and maybe some speculation -- totally unwarranted and without any actual, factual reporting -- that drugs and/or alcohol are to blame for the rising star's troubled performance.

But, no. Not one word was uttered, tweeted, typed or mentioned on any of the multiple social-networking sites to which Perez Hilton regularly contributes and certainly nothing on his astronomically famous web site, PerezHilton.com.

The gossip blogger and frenemy to the stars, has recently been toting his "Perez Presents" tour all over the internet, giving him even further bragging rights (in the past, Perez has taken credit for the successes of Lady GaGa and Mika) for "discovering" new talents Ladyhawke, FrankMusik, Eric Hutchinson, Sliimy, Semi Precious Weapons, and Ida Maria.

Despite the fact that most, if not all of the artists have been touring their home countries -- most artists are from overseas -- for the past year, and anyone who reads any sort of music news would know some of their names, Perez continues to promote his gig as a musical experience worth the $30plus price tag, because it will expose you to a whole "new" world or music.

I'd beg to differ. And I'm sure the mere 250 people who attended the event at the House of Blues [in Boston on Monday, September 14th] would agree, especially once co-headliner Ida Maria had a melt-down during song one-and-a-half, rendering her unable to perform the rest of her set.

The Norwegian rocker seemed less-than-impressed by the dwindling crowd as she took the stage (the three-story music venue can hold more than 2,400 people). She pouted her way through her first tune, refusing to sing the last two lines on the song, and opting, instead, to have a pow-wow with her guitarist, who pleaded with her to continue the performance under hushed mics.

As she led into her second song, the singer put down her own guitar and stood facing the audience folding her arms with an un-entertained, unenthusiastic, "I could care less" look written all over her face, before storming off mid-song leaving her band clueless. After a brief period of confusion, the stage managers reeled out a screen from which the audience could watch music videos. Already angry concert goers booed as Kanye graced the screen. Management were quick to replace his video with Janet, Madonna and of course, Taylor Swift.

Later, Maria would return from her fit back stage to apologize in broken English..." [Boston Daily Free Press]

That interesting, but somewhat unsympathetic article, fails to mention that Ida was crying, and that when she returned, she emotionally finished "Keep Me Warm" before apologizing "in broken English" and then finally leaving the stage for the last time. Video of the incident below.

Two nights earlier at the DC show, things weren't much better...

Continue reading "Ida Maria was drunk in DC, had a meltdown in Boston (video), was replaced by Kat DeLuna @ Perez Hilton show in NYC "