As her keyboardist slowly ran through the chords of her song “Teenage Dream,” Olivia Rodrigo took the stage Friday night and proclaimed that her nightmare had not come true.
The Grammy-winning singer-songwriter was maybe 20 minutes into the opening date of her world tour behind her 2023 album, “Guts,” which closes with that sad piano ballad about fear, even (or especially) when it was girl, that your best The years are already behind you. She wrote “Teenage Dream” a few days before her 19th birthday, she told the crowd at the Acrisure Arena here, “at a time when she was very afraid of growing up.”
But instead of getting hyped up over “Drivers License,” the 2021 hit single that propelled Rodrigo to pop stardom, here she was in front of 11,000 fans: not just a survivor of a teen phenomenon but a thriving adult.
“I don't know if you know this, but I turned 21 a few days ago,” he said to cheers that made it clear that everyone knew it. “I went to the gas station the other day and bought a pack of cigarettes and a case of beer. “I promise I didn't consume it, but I bought it just because I could.” More screams.
“This all means that I guess growing up isn't so scary after all.”
Rodrigo, an unconditional theater child who began in the Disney universe, still uses her power to cure those who suffer from the disease of adolescence. Her songs on “Guts,” like those on her 2021 debut, “Sour,” channel the feeling of injustice that defines being a teenager whom no one understands; Even when the music addresses the specifics of Rodrigo's overnight celebrity (as on “The Grudge,” which many have assumed addresses a feud with Taylor Swift) it seeks to make space for the universal outrage at having to deal with clueless parents. and insensitive ex-boyfriends.
Friday’s show was the opening night of Rodrigo’s tour in support of 2023’s “Guts.”
(Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times)
“You look happy and healthy,” he sang with one of those exes in mind near the end of Friday’s show, on “Good 4 U,” before adding with something resembling pride: “Not me.” It was one of countless moments in which she paid tribute to the emotional turmoil facing his young audience.
Rodrigo has certainly grown up, though: This tour, which will keep her on the road for four nights at Inglewood's Kia Forum in August, is a more elaborate affair than her first outing, with plenty of stadium spectacle, something she deliberately avoided. with “Sour,” playing mostly smaller venues two years ago. She had a group of dancers holding hand mirrors as they twirled around her in “Pretty Is n't Pretty”; she writhed on a transparent part of the stage during “Obsessed” while a camera leered at her from below.
For “Logical” and “Enough for You,” two of his most intimate songs, he tied himself to a bright crescent moon floating above the crowd: an appealingly whimsical extension of the ritualized pop star confession. And after introducing “Teenage Dream” with his story of how he turned 21, the giant video screens came to life with clips of kindergarten-aged Rodrigo depicting the finesse of showbiz to come.
Olivia Rodrigo's 90-minute concert included all the songs from “Guts” and all but a couple from “Sour.”
(Michael Blackshire / Los Angeles Times)
Yet for all its flash, the production never surpassed Rodrigo's performance, which showcased his strong live voice (his singing on “The Grudge” felt almost laser-guided) and his close, affectionate interaction with his band. of seven members, which was composed entirely of women and non-binary people.
Rodrigo's music alternates between crisp, guitar-based pop-punk and florid Broadway-infused piano balladry, and here she seemed eager to push each mode to new extremes. He took his time on the slow “Traitor” and “Drivers License,” communicating the pain of betrayal with the cracks and squeaks of his voice, while “Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl” and a very loud “Brutal” would have sounded right at home on Warped Tour (or maybe even Ozzfest). Rodrigo made the grumpy “All-American Bitch,” about the impossible demands of modern femininity, as a kind of gallery of annoyance; She also changed a lyric of hers over hers “perfect all-American hips” to draw attention to hers “perfect all-American tits” of hers.
For “Happier” and “Favorite Crime,” Rodrigo sat cross-legged on the edge of the stage with only one of her guitarists accompanying her—just two musicians working through her complicated feelings in real time with tools at hand.
Friday's 90-minute concert, which included all the songs from “Guts” and all but a couple from “Sour,” ended with “Get Him Back!”, a rap-rock hit that weighs the comforts of a reunion with the pleasures of revenge. . He then walked off stage to greet fans in the front row, one of whom handed him a tiara which he quickly placed on top of his head.
His people had spoken.
