There's a girl by the name of M.I.A. who's hotter than hot and played in Toronto last night at the Phoenix. Fate landed me a ticket for the sold out show via my friend's girlfriend's dental surgery.

By now even my Mom has probably heard of M.I.A. so I will spare you the trouble of explaining who she is or what she's about. I had read about her, listened to her music, seen photos, and heard about her last two Toronto shows but I was wholly unprepared to be swept away, which is exactly what happened.

The girl has an infectious fire and confidence that's tempered with the buoyancy of a 12-year old doing karaoke raps. With the help of Diplo on the turntables and samplers (I wish I was him) and a lithe and nasty backup singer (don't know her name), M.I.A. rocked the house into a fury. The show was brief (one hour) but intense, combining the violent undercurrent of her lyrics with hope, irreverence and booty bass bhangra beats.
She closed out the pre-encore set with Galang-Galang, prefacing the song by warning us that it's going to be featured in an upcoming Honda commercial.

Riding home in my friend's car, we cranked M.I.A. on the Camry soundsystem and wished that we had gone to the afterparty.