After postponing her April/May dates due to illness, Lorde finally made it to humble old Adelaide on a classic winters evening. It was bitterly cold and the wind was colder. Nevertheless, Lorde’s subjects were willing to battle the weather and wait in line all day (when I arrived at 5, two hours before the doors were to be opened, there were close to 200 cueing). Armed with thermoses, quilts and comfort food, they anxiously waited to catch a glimpse of the 17-year-old girl who has had people talking about her non-stop for the last 12 months. Before New Zealand’s golden girl took the stage, Safia, who are becoming better known day after day thanks to some moderate Triple J rotation, warmed up the audience and kicked off the evening. Although the crowd seemed to lap up what they served, Safia are still in the growing stages of being a band. They wear their influences on their sleeves, with songs like ‘Stretched & Faded’ having some pretty obvious roots in some of Flume’s or Flying Lotus’ work, and the sound of their whole set could be described as Radiohead’s Kid A walking into some Eastern European rave. But don’t that put you off if that doesn’t seem like your thing, Safia have some very strong assets to their sound, mainly Ben Woolner’s ethereal and heavenly vocals, presenting some evidence that Safia might be a band to watch.
But Safia’s show was only a footnote to the crowd; they’d only come to see one girl.Before Lorde had even sung a single note, this diverse audience filled with all kinds of people, mums, dads, young children coming to see their first concert, 30-somethings on date night, the cool kids, the weird kids, they were all already in the palm of her hand when she walked on stage all dressed in black.
It’s so rare when an artist steps into the limelight and such a wide range of individuals stand up and take notice, even rarer when that artist hasn’t even graduated high school. But Lorde did not perform like she was still in school; she performed like she had been doing it her whole life. Every move she made, her adoring fans responded exactly how she wished them to. Only a two-piece band backed her but no set of eyes wavered from her presence, watching closely while she danced like a possessed puppet. Mid-set, she spontaneously fell to the floor, making everyone in the room’s heart jump worrying about her health, killing the light show for just a moment to make sure she was fine, but she nonchalantly responded with a “It’s nice down here”, letting us all rest easy. The highlight of Lorde’s visual spectacle was easily when she left the stage for only a moment and returned in a shimmering golden dress and matching cloak like the world's most decadent vampire, only making me gaze upon her even more. How can someone who on stage seems so obviously introverted be so utterly captivating?
Lorde has that rare gift that only a few performers in a generation have where she can make every single person in the room feel like her best friend. They scream out her birth name (“Ella! Ella! You are my queen!”) and it seems like she responds. She personalises her show, letting who she is shine through, apologising so sincerely for postponing her shows and introducing set highlight ‘Ribs’ with a personal and heart warming speech about growing older. Maybe it’s just her songs and her age but it seems like it only takes a flick of her wrist to make the room instantly feel what she feels. And maybe that’s why she’s had so much success, her bag of hits (which is scarily deep for a 17-year-old) are so honest and relatable and that element to her music only stuck out more in a live setting. She could only whisper “Don’t you think it’s boring how people talk” and the room would erupt.
The question on everyone’s lips about Lorde though is, can she keep this up for a career or is it just the fluke of the decade? Leaving that show, the answer was pretty clear: Lorde is not going anywhere.
Review by Noah Ward.
Photo by Chloe Miller.
But Safia’s show was only a footnote to the crowd; they’d only come to see one girl.Before Lorde had even sung a single note, this diverse audience filled with all kinds of people, mums, dads, young children coming to see their first concert, 30-somethings on date night, the cool kids, the weird kids, they were all already in the palm of her hand when she walked on stage all dressed in black.
It’s so rare when an artist steps into the limelight and such a wide range of individuals stand up and take notice, even rarer when that artist hasn’t even graduated high school. But Lorde did not perform like she was still in school; she performed like she had been doing it her whole life. Every move she made, her adoring fans responded exactly how she wished them to. Only a two-piece band backed her but no set of eyes wavered from her presence, watching closely while she danced like a possessed puppet. Mid-set, she spontaneously fell to the floor, making everyone in the room’s heart jump worrying about her health, killing the light show for just a moment to make sure she was fine, but she nonchalantly responded with a “It’s nice down here”, letting us all rest easy. The highlight of Lorde’s visual spectacle was easily when she left the stage for only a moment and returned in a shimmering golden dress and matching cloak like the world's most decadent vampire, only making me gaze upon her even more. How can someone who on stage seems so obviously introverted be so utterly captivating?
Lorde has that rare gift that only a few performers in a generation have where she can make every single person in the room feel like her best friend. They scream out her birth name (“Ella! Ella! You are my queen!”) and it seems like she responds. She personalises her show, letting who she is shine through, apologising so sincerely for postponing her shows and introducing set highlight ‘Ribs’ with a personal and heart warming speech about growing older. Maybe it’s just her songs and her age but it seems like it only takes a flick of her wrist to make the room instantly feel what she feels. And maybe that’s why she’s had so much success, her bag of hits (which is scarily deep for a 17-year-old) are so honest and relatable and that element to her music only stuck out more in a live setting. She could only whisper “Don’t you think it’s boring how people talk” and the room would erupt.
The question on everyone’s lips about Lorde though is, can she keep this up for a career or is it just the fluke of the decade? Leaving that show, the answer was pretty clear: Lorde is not going anywhere.
Review by Noah Ward.
Photo by Chloe Miller.
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