Olivia Rodrigo is 21 years young in thrilling ‘Guts’ tour opener
PALM DESERT — As her keyboard player slowly cycled through the chords of her song “Teenage Dream,†Olivia Rodrigo stood onstage Friday night and proclaimed that her nightmare hadn’t come true.
The Grammy-winning singer and songwriter was maybe 20 minutes into the opening date of her world tour behind her 2023 album, “Guts,†which closes with that mournful piano ballad about fearing — even (or especially) as a child — that your best years are already behind you. She wrote “Teenage Dream†a few days before she turned 19, she told the capacity crowd at Acrisure Arena here, “at a time when I was really afraid of growing up.â€
But instead of flaming out in the wake of “Drivers License,†the instant-smash 2021 single that vaulted Rodrigo to pop superstardom, here she was in front of 11,000 adoring fans: not merely a teen-phenom survivor but a thriving adult.
Nominated for six Grammy Awards, 20-year-old Olivia Rodrigo is set to embark on her first-ever arena tour: ‘I need to work on my death-metal scream.’
“I don’t know if you guys know this, but I turned 21 a few days ago,†she said to cheers that made clear everybody knew this. “I went to the gas station the other day and I bought a pack of cigarettes and a case of beer. I promise I didn’t consume it, but I just bought it just ’cause I f—ing could.†More whoops.
“All of this to say that I think growing up isn’t so scary after all.â€
A dyed-in-the-wool theater kid who got her start in the Disney universe, Rodrigo is still using her power to heal those afflicted with the disease of adolescence. Her songs on “Guts†— like the ones on her 2021 debut, “Sour†— channel the sense of injustice that defines being a teenager whom no one understands; even when the music is grappling with the specifics of Rodrigo’s overnight celebrity — as in “The Grudge,†which many have assumed addresses a falling-out with Taylor Swift — it seeks to make space for the universal outrage of having to deal with clueless parents and insensitive ex-boyfriends.
“You look happy and healthy,†she sang with one such ex in mind near the end of Friday’s show, in “Good 4 U,†before adding with something like pride: “Not me.†It was one of countless moments in which she was honoring the emotional turmoil faced by her young audience.
Yet grow up Rodrigo certainly has: This tour, which will keep her on the road through a four-night stand at Inglewood’s Kia Forum in August, is a more elaborate affair than her first outing, with plenty of arena-gig spectacle — something she purposely avoided with “Sour,†playing mostly in smaller venues two years ago. She had a troupe of dancers clutching handheld mirrors as they twirled around her in “Pretty Isn’t Prettyâ€; she writhed on a see-through portion of the stage during “Obsessed†as a camera leered at her from below.
For “Logical†and “Enough for You,†two of her most intimate songs, she strapped herself onto a glowing crescent moon that floated out over the crowd — an appealingly whimsical super-sizing of the ritualized pop-star confession. And after she introduced “Teenage Dream†with her tale of turning 21, giant video screens flickered to life with clips of a kindergarten-age Rodrigo playacting the showbiz finesse to come.
For all its flash, though, the production never overwhelmed Rodrigo’s performance, which showcased her strong live vocals — her singing in “The Grudge†felt almost laser-guided — and her close, affectionate interplay with her seven-piece band, which consisted entirely of women and nonbinary people.
Rodrigo’s music switches between crisp, guitar-based pop-punk and florid, Broadway-steeped piano balladry, and here she seemed eager to push each mode to new extremes. She took her time in the slow-moving “Traitor†and “Drivers License,†communicating the pain of betrayal with the cracks and burrs in her voice, while “Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl†and a very rowdy “Brutal†would’ve sounded at home on the Warped Tour (or perhaps even Ozzfest). Rodrigo did the snarling “All-American Bitch,†about the impossible demands of modern womanhood, as a kind of gallery of annoyance; she also changed a lyric about her “perfect all-American hips†to call attention to her “perfect all-American tits.â€
For “Happier†and “Favorite Crime,†Rodrigo sat cross-legged at the lip of the stage with only one of her guitarists accompanying her — just two musicians working through their complicated feelings in real time with the tools at hand.
Friday’s 90-minute concert, which featured every song from “Guts†and all but a couple from “Sour,†ended with “Get Him Back!,†a rap-rock banger that weighs the comforts of a reunion against the pleasures of revenge. Then she came down from the stage to greet fans in the front row, one of whom handed her a tiara that she quickly placed atop her head.
Her people had spoken.
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