Ska-pop's bad girl makes good in concert

If Lily Allen was truly stinging from being shut out at the Brit Awards last week, she put on a good front Sunday night at Axis.

The much-hyped ska-popster was nominated for four of the Grammy equivalents for her debut album "Alright, Still" but was bested on all fronts. With a profane salutation to her homeland, the small- of- stature, big- of- mouth singer made the gleefully vengeful declaration , "I'm over here shifting more units than those other losers back home."

She's also over here finally alerting US audiences to what all the fuss has been about since "Alright" tore up the British charts last year.

If Allen, 21, didn't quite justify the hype, she came darn close, skipping through the breezy, occasionally acidic tracklist of "Alright, Still" and a trio of covers in front of a shiny, happy seven-piece band sporting matching golf shirts. While the slight variations on the basic ska/reggae groove occasionally flirted with head-bobbing monotony, Allen proved adept at rattling off her cheeky raps and reggae toasts with a spicy, round-the-way-girl charm.

She dressed down obnoxious dudes with small-scale, um, equipment on "Not Big," catty high school girls during "Friend or Foe," and her own slacker brother in the closer, "Alfie."

Allen's mischievous nature makes plain that she doesn't mean to draw blood, only land punches and amuse herself by watching her targets -- leering drunkards, bad boyfriends, mortgage loan officers -- get batted around.

The sold - out crowd lapped up the sweet and sour milk of her unkindness with pleasure -- although there was a requisite hipster faction determined to chat at all costs -- and eagerly joined in on the kiss-off of encore "Smile," wherein Allen wallows in her ex's misery.

Allen's mike volume could've used a boost, but her pitch was a thing of wonder and her ease onstage even more notable. She bobbed and danced about easily, proclaimed herself "a little bit drunk" (although aside from some giggling there was no evidence of this), thumbed her nose at the smoking ban, and generally betrayed none of the discomfort that might be expected from someone with so little live performance experience.

On the fun scale, Allen delivered a lot, but as an artist she still seems a bit slight. She has made comments in the press about not recording again; if she does, it will be interesting to see how she matures. The Brit Awards might not have seen the last of her.