FLO Takes D.C.’s 9:30 Club by Storm
The UK girl group had the whole sold-out venue jumpin’.
By Elise Christopher
On Saturday, April 15, I saw FLO perform at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. FLO is a British girl group consisting of three members: Stella Quaresma, Jorja Douglas, and Renée Downer.
I first heard about FLO through my Twitter timeline. Everyone was freaking out about their song “Cardboard Box,” highlighting their harmonies and even calling them “the next Destiny’s Child.” Of course, I checked it out, and immediately I was sold.
Fast forward to Saturday, and I’m standing in line with my roommate for their concert three hours early after a full day of exploring the city. Even then, I wasn’t at the front of the line. And by the time the doors opened, the line to the venue curved around the corner and went back a block or two.
The one issue I took with the concert was that it started so late. The doors weren’t scheduled to open until 10 p.m., and the line didn’t start moving until about ten minutes after that. My feet were tired, my back was hurting, it was getting cold outside—I was just ready for the concert to happen.
When the show finally got started, I was not disappointed.
Samaria was the opener. She did well despite the technical difficulties that were going on during her set. Her R&B and alternative sound got the crowd’s energy up. She got everyone engaged, talking about her Cancer ex and encouraging everyone to sing along to her cover of Ms. Lauryn Hill’s “Ex-Factor.” She was on for a shorter time than I expected, but she certainly wasn’t forgettable.
Before FLO even came out, the crowd was singing in unison to the R&B classics playing over the speakers. When people were hitting every note in a Brandy song, I knew I was in for a treat. The lights dimmed, harmonies started spilling from the venue’s speakers, and everyone’s camera was turned on.
The girls stepped on stage, and their coordinated outfits were on point—they all looked gorgeous in slightly different royal blue ensembles. They started off strong with “Not My Job,” and the accompanying live band absolutely killed the song’s intro. The crowd was screaming from just the opening harmony, and when the beat dropped, everyone started dancing.
The energy in the venue was buzzing. Every person in the crowd knew every word and faithfully sang along to the girls’ beautiful live vocals. At times I could barely hear FLO. All three members took no time to showcase their talent, ad-libs coming left and right. Not to mention, the group was pulling off choreography at the same time.
Without pause, they moved on to “Immature,” a single from their EP, The Lead. Again, I found myself speechless at their ability to seamlessly harmonize live. Whether it was all the girls singing in unison or one taking the lead while the others did an underlying harmony, it was perfect every time. Unsurprisingly, the crowd had the song down to a T, accounting for every pause and syncopation in the lyrics.
They slowed things down a bit with a drill version of “Another Guy,” feeling themselves on stage at this point. Then, they slowed things down a lot with “Feature Me.” It’s definitely one of their sexier songs, and the live performance had chair choreography to go with it. One thing I didn’t know before the concert was that they perform it in a lower key. For me, Stella was the star of this song, but the other girls were amazing as well. Next was the unreleased song “Control Freak.” Its sound is a little different from the rest of FLO’s discography, but its energy fits right in.
While “Control Freak” kept things mild, “Summertime” followed after and yanked the mood right back up. The crowd was back to bouncing and grooving and singing along. The addition of a bridge into the song only got everyone more hyped. The girls were feeding off the crowd’s energy, and Jorja yelled out a “Sing it!” going into the final chorus. All of them were doing runs and belts at the end, each member making room for the others to shine. Their voices complemented each other's sounds so well.
“Change” was the next unreleased track they did, and it truly left me stunned. Sitting at the edge of the stage, FLO poured their hearts out. It’s such a beautiful song–it took advantage not only of the girls’ range but their vocal agility. Singing with rather than over one another, they blended together flawlessly.
All I can say about “Losing You” is that FLO took me to church. The song’s vibe is slow and emotional, but what did me in was the power and the emotions in the members’ voices.
Doing more crowd work, the girls started a sing-along with the chorus of the next song on the setlist, “Superstar” by Jamelia. Obviously, the crowd and I were up to the task, receiving kudos from the girls on how great we sounded. I had no idea what the original sounded like, but it wouldn’t be too hard to convince that it was a FLO song otherwise. They really made it their own.
After confirming there were indeed fly girls in the crowd, the girls launched into “Fly Girl,” the second-to-last song in the setlist. Missy Elliott has a verse on it, and I knew Missy wasn’t in the building, so I was looking forward to how that would go. Of course, they put a dance break over her verse, with the group’s proclaimed best dancer, Renée, in the center. Half the crowd was rapping the verse while the other half was hyping them up.
It felt like I had come full circle, as their closing song was the one that got me into them: “Cardboard Box.” The crowd was somehow louder than it had been all night as the girls made their victory lap with this last track.
By the end of the show, FLO had dragged me through a whole rollercoaster of feelings, with more ups than downs. There was less crowd interaction between songs than I had hoped for, but it was clear that they had a schedule to stick to. When the girls did take the time to talk, they were all smiles and high spirits, their accents making them all the more charming.
It was amazing to see them get into their groove as they worked through the set, dancing around the stage and giving the front few rows some love. FLO has so much live talent after only being a group for a few years. I’m excited to see what else they have up their sleeves next tour.