Gothic A-Cup Dolly Parton: Karen Elson At Cafe du Nord

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Karen Elson is one of those rare people who can be a model, marry Jack White on the Amazon River, and make a crowd wait an hour and a half for her to sing a song, without engendering insane hatred in her fans, or at least that's how it appeared at her show at Café du Nord Tuesday night.

For what seemed like three days, but was probably only two, her Hasidic roadies wandered around the stage engaged in some kind of totally necessary pre-show ritual that seemed to mostly involve draping a rag over a mic, and looking for something on the ground that they didn't really care about finding.

While I was about to start doing the slow clap that for some reason translates to, "I hate you," the rest of the crowd seemed pretty chill, and not at all worried about being up past 11pm on a Tuesday. In the end, her trick worked. When Elson finally took the stage, we were all so overjoyed that the show was almost over and we would soon be crossing it off our life lists and going to bed, that we applauded heartily, and even engaged in some incoherent banter with her:

Karen: "Tell me something about San Francisco!"
Someone: "More redheads than not!"

Say what? So, Someone lied to Karen Elson, but she kind of deserved it, what with all her coy giggling, and lovely voice, and ability to only make facial expressions worthy of Steven Meisel.

Of course, unfair as it is, when Elson and her all star bandmates (Patty Smith's son, My Morning Jacket's Carl Broemel, Jack White's spiritual presence) finally took the stage, we were hardpressed not to forgive their tardiness.

Those cheekbones, that hair, the infinitely listenable if somewhat monotonous songs about modeling. Just kidding, there were no songs about modeling.

With her long peach dress, high ruffled collar, and sweet twangy voice, Elson was something of a Gothic A-Cup Dolly Parton, which isn't bad for a Tuesday.