Three songs into her set in Atlantic City on Saturday (August 6), Kesha tells the crowd that her new music is “fucking awesome.” Then she apologizes for not being able to play it. Instead she will perform a few covers of songs that made her who she is, done in her own way, in addition to the hits that made her famous. She launches into a high-energy, Nashville-style rendition of Iggy Pop’s “Nightclubbing.” Later she’ll connect “Jolene” with “Old Flames” for a double tribute to Dolly Parton, though she’s channeling the country icon throughout with her brightly-colored, fringe-covered jumpsuit and boisterous blonde locks. But the show’s dominant vibe—and the direction the pop singer seems to be moving in—is set in Kesha’s initial greeting to her faithful fans: “We’re gathered here today for rock and roll.”
This scene is set at Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City, inside the casino’s new concert hall. Like Caesar’s, the Borgata, and Bally’s, Harrah’s is one of the few spots that has enjoyed recent growth amid a city often considered on the verge of bankruptcy. With key entries on AC’s famous casino boardwalk now shuttered, the abandoned palaces can make the Jersey oceanfront seem like an apocalyptic wasteland. And so, there’s a certain symmetry in Kesha electing to kick off her Fuck The World Tour at a specific venue betting on a rebirth: She, too, is finding new life after controversy. With the exception of a one-song performance at Coachella with “True Colors” collaborator Zedd and a three-day mini-residency in Las Vegas earlier this summer, this was her first time back on stage since an ongoing lawsuit against her former producer Lukasz “Dr. Luke” Gottwald.
Back in February, Kesha was denied a preliminary injunction barring against Dr. Luke, after she accused the super-producer of sexual, physical, verbal, and emotional abuse. The messy court battle effectively put her career on hold, with Kesha and her label, Sony, reaching a stalemate over the matter of her recording without Luke’s involvement. In April, Kesha said she was given the opportunity to leave her contract with the producer’s Sony imprint Kemosabe if she publicly apologized for accusing Luke of rape and abuse. She refused. Celebrities and fans alike rallied around Kesha. Though the case was far from closed in the courts' eyes, it felt like the first time a female star making such claims was believed, almost entirely, by the public.
Kesha in AC on Aug. 6; photo by Donald Kravitz/Getty Images
Since this turning point, Kesha claims to have written 28 new songs, but is unsure of when she’ll be able to share them with the world. It seems all but coincidental that she chose to end her 13-song Atlantic City set with yet another Dylan cover, this time of “I Shall Be Released.”
With the exception of these moments seemingly in conversation with her current legal situation, the majority of the AC performance is classic Kesha. She opens with the independence anthem “We R Who We R,” a song originally penned after Kesha learned of a then-recent surge in suicides among gay teenagers. The cheerleading cadence of “Dinosaur” is met with two men running the stage with dinosaur masks, Kesha pretending to beat them up—appropriate given that it’s a tune about old men hitting on young ladies. In her breakthrough single “TiK ToK,” she edits the line, “Gonna smack him if he getting too drunk” with a scream of, “Fuck you, Donald Trump.”
While Kesha’s attitude has often felt more rock star than pop diva—as supported extracurricularly by her Flaming Lips collabs and her Dylan love—Kesha live circa 2016 plays to this side. Her hits “True Colors” and “Timber” with Zedd and Pitbull, respectively, are modified with strong folk-rock guitar accompaniments, a solo here and there. Her band, the Creepies, rock cowboy hats, dark sunglasses, and massive mustaches, and speak in the kind of rasp attained by years of smoking. Consider all this a warm-up for a different kind of party the following day.
On Sunday (August 7), Kesha performs on a baseball field in Coney Island as part of Diplo’s Mad Decent Block Party. Despite this being a traveling summer fest dedicated to all things EDM, Kesha and her bandmates (known as the Creepies) use their stage time to praise the pursuit of rock and roll. Still, the daytime club atmosphere make her party hits particularly resonate. MCU Park goes wild when she launches into “Cannibal,” a performance that ends with her making out with boyfriend Brad Ashenfelter. She knocks him to the ground and pretends to eat his heart, a plastic anatomical model she then clutches and tosses offstage while finishing the song. As if not anywhere near enough, Kesha instructs the audience to lift a middle finger in the air and shout “Fuck the world” at every negative thing in their lives. They do so unanimously.
Despite what the crying court shots may suggest, Kesha’s spirit as it was known in the Animal and Warrior days—the place where recklessness meets invincibility—remains intact. She still curses like a sailor and stands by the dental hygienic properties of using whiskey when you run out of toothpaste. But something’s different, too.
Last week Kesha dropped her lawsuit against Dr. Luke in California. She’s continuing her appeal in New York in an attempt to release new music. There’s no clearly defined end in sight, but both shows this weekend confirm a certain hunger inherent within her: She’s ready to show the world a hardened edge rarely reflected in Luke-helmed pop confections. The wait has been long, but make no mistake, Kesha is in it for the long haul.