Robyn Dances With Thousands in Toronto - Spinner

popular enough to make long sold-out Toronto's 3200-capacity Sound Academy for last night's rescheduled show, but still underground enough for everyone in the crew to look like they receive a personal adherence to her, that Robyn is nevertheless their little secret. Secrets, however, long to be divided and the dish of a Robyn concert is that communal experience. These were hardcore fans, cheering in acknowledgment of each intro, raising their arms to every soaring synth and singing along to all the songs, be it her euphoric new single 'Hang With Me,' ragga-fied cover of Teddybears' 'Cobrastyle' or minimal techno-influenced 'Don't F-ing Tell Me What to Do' (incidentally, the real first song my infant son danced to). If her fans were exploited to, as Robyn's world-beating single puts it, 'Dancing on My Own,' this night was finally their opportunity to dance en masse. That togetherness is what Robyn's music is ultimately about - human connection, and the release of same - and why her crystalline vocals and soaring choruses resounds so strongly with her fanbase.Watch Robyn Perform Live at Toronto's Sound Academy As thousands sang "Not alone/No, we're not alone" ('Indestructible') or "You and me together/Stars forever" ('Stars 4-Ever'), the emotional catharsis was palpable. When she shut off her initial set with her baroque mid-decade breakthrough 'With Every Heartbeat' and over her second encore with a stripped-down rendition of her original '90s-era pop hit 'Show Me Love,' the crowd's voices rose so hard that it became a communal performance, a collaboration between artist and hearing that power be missed if she ever became Britney-sized. Though she took jokey detours, like her pun-laden girl-rap classic 'Konichiwa Bitches' or a ballad version of her Snoop Dogg collab 'U Should Know Better,' Robyn's otherwise achingly sincere music almost always pairs its body-moving robo-beats with a heart-on-sleeve emotionalism that has made her works transcend those of her fembot peers. Robyn makes pop music in its purest form - a place she subtly made during a brief, brilliant cover of fellow Swedes Abba's 'Dancing Queen' - and while, yes, perhaps she should be bigger, last night's show proved that she couldn't get much better.