Last Friday, Ella Yelich-O’Connor (AKA Lorde) rounded off her three night residency at Camden Roundhouse and right down to the weather outside, the night was everything you could ever possibly hope a Lorde show would be. Fans lined the street outside and a palpable excitement filled the air long before they’d even caught sight of the inside of the venue.
Right from the offset, it was clear why the Kiwi star had opted for such an intimate venue to host her magnificent stage show, rather than somewhere much bigger – these evenings were about connection over anything else. Split into four ‘acts’ the 22 track long setlist combined old favourites with the bright melodies of 2021’s ‘Solar Power’ set to the backdrop of a rotating sun dial.
Introducing herself to the crowd after ‘Buzzcut Season’ from her debut album, Yelich-O’Connor joked that the venue had started to feel like her home and how the Friday night show felt like she had invited the crowd over for a party or dinner and the intimate setting truly did make it feel that way. At times, it was easy to forget that there was 3,000 other people in the room purely because of the amount of love so freely flowing between artist and audience.
Accompanied by a suit-clad band, Act II resulted in some serious emotional whiplash, jumping from witchier tracks like ‘The Path’ and ‘California’ to ‘Ribs’, a song she wrote at 15 and one that ignites a reaction from the crowd like nothing I’ve ever seen before. Nostalgia is a theme woven deep into the majority of Lorde’s music and for many fans, they have grown up alongside it, using songs like ‘Ribs’ to pinpoint those most important moments so the invitation to dance for our fifteen year old selves was very much welcomed.
The show also happened to be the 9 year anniversary of her song ‘Royals’, the one that started it all off. Expressing her gratitude for her fans and the fact that it was a pop song that changed her life, she launched the idea that a banger isn’t a banger until the audience participates before playing a stunning stripped back version of Carly Rae Jepsen’s ‘Run Away with Me’.
Throughout the set, there were cathartic moments a plenty, including ‘Hard Feelings’ and ‘Writer in the Dark’ both of which hit especially hard for me personally having experienced my first break up late last year. It’s incredibly hard to properly articulate what it feels like to hear the songs that got you through such a dark period live in the flesh but I will say this: it was a reminder that I’m still here, still breathing and even when it feels like your entire world is collapsing inward, there’s so much joy left to be felt.
Cue an on stage outfit change (artfully done behind a screen) and a subtle change in lighting to what can only be described as ‘sunset hues’ during the closing monologue of ‘Secrets From A Girl (Who’s Seen it All)’. Act III saw a huge rise in the already bursting energy that existed in the room as she stormed through several of her greatest hits including ‘Supercut’, ‘Sober’ and ‘Perfect Places’, during which it was almost difficult to hear Ella over the screams of the lyric ‘I’m 19 and I’m on fire’.
Then it was time for the big ones, ‘Solar Power’ and ‘Green Light’, the lead singles from her last two albums. The former of which she wrote after a long day in the sunshine and the track in which during the last chorus a huge cannon of yellow disc confetti consisting of messages like ‘Save the bees’, ‘Wear sunscreen’ and ‘Breathe out and tune in’ was let off, releasing with it a totally brand new sense of euphoria.
Finally, the big finish rolled around, the band did the classic ‘walk off, walk back on’ before the encore which included deluxe edition Solar Power track, Helen of Troy which is HUGELY under-appreciated as well as the classic rendition of ‘Royals’ because, after all this is the song that started everything and lastly ‘A World Alone’ live for the first time in 5 years, played especially because it was the final night in Camden.
These shows at Roundhouse were indeed a celebration of connection in its purest form and it was magical to be surrounded by so many people who have all been walked through the complicated mess that is adolescence by Lorde’s music with the knowledge that at one point or another, everybody in that room had experienced the same feelings of first love, heartbreak and joy so strong you don’t know what to do with it.