A woman in a flowy, white dress with her tattooed body caked in gold glitter walks out with a styrofoam cup in hand and grabs her white acoustic guitar in front of a four piece band. This is Elle King and she knows how to party. Concert goers at Milwaukee's Summerfest, the world's largest music festival spanning ten days, stand on rows of bleachers and picnic tables as King and her band kick into their opening number. King looked like a blues rock, country queen with her gravelly voice comparable to Janis Joplin. After performing songs like "Jackson" and "Kocaine Karolina", King told the crowd, "You're doing a lot for my confidence", again sipping from her styrofoam cup attached to her microphone stand.
Her 75-minute set showcased her genre blending sound of blues, soul, punk, country, rock n roll, and folk. Standout songs included "Where The Devil Don't Go", "Can't Be Loved", and "Chain Smokin, Hard Drinkin, Woman". One of the numerous no filter stories Elle King shared included the time she dumped an ex-boyfriend before he went on tour. "He said he was going on tour for two weeks so I pointed at the door and yelled get out!" She subsequently played a song about that incident. At one point, fireworks from the adjacent Paul McCartney show lit up the night sky during her song "The Compromise" leaving King to pause and say, "Just for me?"
King is a multi-instrumentalist, swapping out acoustic guitars for banjos for nearly every song in the set. Barnburner covers of Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" and "Oh, Darlin" from The Beatles had the crowd focused on King's rising star. The most response came when King played her number 1 single, "Ex's and Oh's". After wrapping up her most well-known song, King and her band came out for an encore. The singer talked about the last 48 hours regarding police shootings. She pleaded, "We need to love each other and don't vote for Trump!" Most attendees expected her to then perform her new single, "America's Sweetheart", but instead she played a flawless punk rock and blues mashup of Nick Jonas' "Jealous" and The Weeknd's "I Can't Feel My Face" which had the bleachers and picnic tables going wild. It was an encore out of left field and was as unpredictable as the entire show she put on where she kept everyone on their toes wanting more.