Concert Review: Grammy U Heads Back to School

Pop starlet Anjulie performed a quick set composed mostly of her singles Tuesday night, in front of a small crowd at the Recording Academy building in Santa Monica. The show was presented by the Grammy University Network, the Recording Academy’s network for college students pursuing careers in the music industry, and was open to Grammy U members.

Anjulie is probably still at the point in her career where you’d call her “up-and-coming.” The term seems to imply that her future is still up in the air, though, and there was no uncertainty in the Toronto native’s performance; she’s already decided she’s going to be a star, she’s just waiting for the world to catch up. With only a few songs, she proved herself quite capable of playing it both sexy and playful, despite a stage that was much too small for her. She often seemed boxed in, poised to unleash all of her energy if she could only have space to move around.

It’s a rare thing these days for a pop star to actually sound good live, yet Anjulie consistently outperformed the versions of her songs that appear on her self-titled debut. Her voice has been reined in and smoothed out in the studio, but on stage she sang freely and passionately, sounding often like a young Nelly Furtado. She was accompanied only by a guitarist, a single backup singer, and a keyboardist who also handled the samples, and they played with an energy and a distinctiveness that is largely missing from the recorded songs.

Anjulie’s songs have already appeared on the new “Melrose Place” and the movie “Fame,” her video for “Boom” was nominated for an MTV Video Music Award, and she’ll soon leave for a national tour opening for Raphael Saadiq. Point being, she should be rid of the “up-and-coming” label any day now. She’s destined for arenas, which is a shame, really, because she’s such a joy to see up close.

Opening for Anjulie were the two finalists in the Grammy U Back to School contest, each of whom played for roughly twenty minutes before a panel of record-industry professionals who were on hand to judge the finale.

First was Louder than Words, a jazz and R&B hybrid composed entirely of UCLA students, who performed together at Spring Sing 2009. Lead singer Alexandra Isley made a good case for her full-bodied, soulful vocal talents, and though she lacked Anjulie’s stage presence, she does indeed have potential as a singer in the vein of Corinne Bailey Rae or Alicia Keys. The band frequently made great use of soft-to-loud dynamics, and only rarely sounded like a group of music majors.

Following them was Y Luv, a rather ambitious rock band out of USC’s music program. They seemed determined both to stretch out their songs as long as possible and to avoid traditional verse-chorus structures at all costs, meaning it often sounded as if they were making things up as they went along. The highlight of their set was one painfully sad song of heartbreak that gave singer Fred Janney ample space to whine with the best of them. Y Luv was ultimately crowned champion of the “Back to School” competition by an almost negligible margin.

E-mail Goodman at [email protected].