Yelle is badass. She busted onto the scene in France in 2005 when she released a song on her MySpace page that swung a hard left hook at a popular (and cocky) member of the hip-hop band TTC. She played her first gig in the States last night at the Knitting Factory, and she hasn’t lost a single bit of that energy.

She’s cute, profane, and completely infectious, mixing (as Flavorpill put it) distorted sonics, pop hooks, and day-glo drum programming. She was on fire on stage last night — and the crowd fed off her energy and everything was more alive than pretty much any show I’ve seen in recent memory.

I’m not normally one to be following French pop music, but my cousin happens to work for Yelle’s record label in France, and she invited me to check it out. So I went with Faris, Ben, and Johanna — can’t let the family down, right? Johanna described the gig on her blog, and is better qualified than I to evaluate it (she had not only heard of the opening acts, but knew some of their music). Here’s her description of Yelle:

She had so much energy. Up until the end of her encore, she was bouncing around, playing air guitar, banging on drums and fist pumping. The two guys with her (one on drums, one on a Korg) had just as much energy. Her set reminded me of a combination of Annie’s cute pop flare and Uffie’s badass attitude.

And here’s a bit of video Johanna shot from the concert. This song is “A Cause des Garçons” (and check out this remix she found too).

Without overstating the matter, Yelle is the antidote to whatever ails you. Go check her out, will you?