You could feel the air get sucked out of the room as Lana Del Rey tentatively made her way onto the stage at Amoeba. The pop starlet was at the San Francisco record store on Thursday to perform a few songs and sign copies of her new album, "Born to Die," which earlier in the week entered at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 albums chart. But she's still shaking off the hangover from that disastrous "Saturday Night Live" appearance in January and, well, for just a few seconds there, neither the audience nor the singer knew what to expect when they first met.
The trepidation didn't last long. There were young girls who came dressed like her, boys clutching vinyl copies of her record close to their hearts, and eager silver-haired gentlemen with long lens cameras dangling around their necks. They unanimously offered Del Rey words of encouragement - some a little more enthusiastically than others.
Even before her bumbling North American late-night television debut went viral, Del Rey was easily the most talked-about arrival of the new year. Fans who bought into the dark torch pop sound of her breakthrough single, "Video Games," felt duped when they found out she was born Elizabeth Grant, may have had some work done around her lips, and didn't actually walk out of an episode of "Twin Peaks." They were concerned that her whole impossibly cool image was completely manufactured. That, just like Lady Gaga, two years earlier she was another middling New York singer-songwriter trying to make it big.
It's hard to imagine that any of the people who turned up at Amoeba as early as 9 a.m. on Thursday were terribly concerned with such matters. Del Rey, 25, looked positively giddy as she surveyed the crowd that stretched into the far corners of the big store. "Look how many of you there are," she gasped, choking up.
She wore a vintage white dress with pale pink Converse high-tops. A diamond necklace matched her glimmering earrings and what appeared to be a very expensive wedding ring on her left hand. Her extra-long press-on nails wrapped delicately around the microphone. It was easy to see why Del Rey came off so poorly in front of the television cameras. She makes awkward gestures with her hands and doesn't quite know what to do with her lanky body. She is also terribly self-conscious.
In person, she compensated with charm - all heavy-lidded eyes, smoldering heartache and operatic warbling served with a knowing smirk. The gaggle of photographers in the front row hardly fazed her, nor did the presence of Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak handing out business cards at the side of the stage. Backed by a pianist and guitar player, Del Rey casually draped her smoky voice around the longing themes of songs like "Born to Die" and "Blue Jeans" as if she had been singing them forever.
"You know you made the record No. 1 in seven countries," she informed her fans.
She only performed five songs - the perfect teaser by the perfect tease. It was all worth it just to hear "Video Games" done properly, her voice booming through the sinister ballad that has the same timeless feel and sexual undercurrent as Chris Isaak's "Wicked Games." Even with the arrival of the full-length album, the song remains Del Rey's best.
After the set-closing "Without You," she deliberated playing one more song before deciding against it. "We don't have time because I have to sign," Del Rey said.
She wasn't kidding. Unlike most artists who simply shuffle their fans through with a few simple chicken scratches on a CD booklet, Del Rey spent a little too much time talking to each one, exchanging hugs and kisses, posing for photographs, signing body parts and showing the kind of gratitude for her supporters that was 100 percent real.
Her piano player, who was looking on from the side of the table, said, "This shuts up all the negative press. When you look out and see this - this is amazing. And it's only the beginning."
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