Photos: LP, Lauren Ruth Ward and SLUGS at the Observatory

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LP at the Observatory (Photo by Josh Beavers)
LP at the Observatory, January 2019 (Photo by Josh Beavers)

LP kicked off her “Heart to Mouth” tour at the Observatory on Friday night, and while those two parts of her body were working fine, the singer (full name: Laura Pergolizzi) had other problems. She came down with a nasty cold before the show — in fact, so sick was she that Saturday night’s show in Oakland was postponed until March.

The sold-out crowd Friday hardly noticed, though. She sang remarkably in spite of it, constantly hitting powerful high notes as the crowd sang along to almost every song and enjoyed a colorful light show. That most of the crowd knew the words is testament to the devotion of LP’s fans — “Heart to Mouth” came out in December, and she performed a big chunk of it, although her planned set was truncated because of her illness.* To end the show, LP performed her big 2015 hit “Lost on You.”

Lauren Ruth Ward preceded the headliner with a stripped-down set — it was just Ward and guitarist Eddie Rivera. Like SLUGS, who also opened the night as a duo (just Marissa Longstreet and Sarsten Noice), Ward’s energy was such that fans hardly noticed it wasn’t a full-band show.

LP setlist: Dreamcatcher, When We’re High, Hey Nice to Know Ya, Dreamer, When I’m Over You, No Witness, One Night in the Sun, Girls Go Wild, Recovery, House on Fire, Other People. Encore: Lost on You.

* Updated to correct setlist

||| Live: LP returns to Southern California for a show March 9 at the Wiltern.

Photos by Josh Beavers