Ten years into her major-label recording career, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Elle King is probably best-known for two things, one good and one not so good. And both came up, whether literally or figuratively, during her performance at SunFest on May 4.
The good one was “Ex’s & Oh’s,” the Grammy-nominated Top 10 single and provocative video from her 2015 debut album Love Stuff, a song that illustrates — and illustrated at SunFest — King’s mix of blues, country and rock influences.
But the artist formerly known as Tanner Elle Schneider has a dark side, which can aid her artistry but also take the 34-year-old, Los Angeles-born daughter of former Saturday Night Live cast member Rob Schneider into darker shadows.
King was hardly City of Angels material this January, when she appeared to perform at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville in a salute to country music legend Dolly Parton. Perhaps treating the event as a cast party (she’s appeared in the TV shows Catfish and Say Yes to the Dress, as well as some of her father’s films), an inebriated King swore into the mic and forgot the lyrics to Parton’s “Marry Me.”
The backlash was swift, and probably severe from Music City’s sacred temple-goers, perhaps part of the reason King declined to be interviewed for a story to promote SunFest. But equally severe was her insipid Instagram excuse after the incident of, “Oh no, was my human showing?” One even has to wonder if the entire scenario might’ve been staged as part of her outlaw persona in this, the modern era of notoriety equaling celebrity. The phrase, “all publicity is good publicity,” after all, has never rung truer.
For King, who primarily sang without playing an instrument, her devil-may-care attitude may have furthered her career, but it didn’t help her performance at SunFest. She entered the stage well after, and exited well before, bandmates Joey McClellan (guitar), Dave Sherman (keyboards), Paul DeVincenzo (bass) and Dave Scalia (drums). And she never introduced the players, all of whom also sang.
“Who loves to party?” King asked the crowd to introduce the early highlight “Tulsa,” from her 2023 album Come Get Your Wife. “I personally love to party.”
Meet the new Captain Obvious. Featuring a stinging slide guitar solo by McClellan, the attitude-infused number and “Ex’s & Oh’s” caused the sparse crowd, perhaps thinned because of the mid-80s temperatures in blazing sun at the Ideal Nutrition Stage, to double a few songs in. The audience even sang the choruses to King’s memorable initial hit. But even those highlights pointed out the sameness to her output, with practically everything at middling tempos and seemingly attempting to wedge itself between country and blues.
When the attitude is there, or the delivery is less formulaic, King’s music clicks. After honoring her 2-year-old son by name with the Come Get Your Wife ballad “Lucky,” she introduced another high-water mark in her set with a new online single that illustrated her view of mixing touring with motherhood.
“I don’t have the baby this weekend,” King said. “He’s with his baby daddy, and this is my new song.”
“Baby Daddy’s Weekend” captured the rebellious persona King portrays perfectly before some curious cover song choices and arrangements brought the sun-drenched proceedings back to earth. The singer also played mandolin on a sluggish, pedestrian reading of Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show’s 1973 hit “The Cover of ‘Rolling Stone,’” then traded verses with McClellan on Stevie Nicks’ hit 1981 collaboration with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around.” The crowd ate it up, inaccurate vocal harmonies and all, but an artist with three major label releases resorting to cover material came across as unnecessary and questionable pandering.
The best Come Get Your Wife performance followed. “Love Go By” broke away from the otherwise formulaic set by showcasing King’s R&B nuances as her voice — which thus far hadn’t strayed out of her safe midrange octaves — soared to display the influence of soulful icons like Aretha Franklin and Etta James. The surprising performance usurped the same album’s subsequent mid-tempo offering “Drunk (And I Don’t Wanna Go Home),” the album version of which was recorded as a duet with country star Miranda Lambert.
A rare track from King’s 2018 sophomore album Shake the Spirit closed the set. “Little Bit of Lovin’” again showcased King’s ability to belt impressively, but those highlights were few and far between and late in the proceedings, which would end five minutes short of their advertised hour between 3:45 and 4:45 p.m. Perhaps it was the heat; the less-than-capacity crowd, or that King felt deserving of an evening headliner slot, but the overall effect came across as uninspired and uninspiring.