I\u2019ll be honest: I was considerably late to the Hearst Greek Theatre for Lorde\u2019s Ultrasound World Tour last Sunday night, Oct. 19.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Due to day-trip dawdling and a longer-than-expected drive home, we completely missed the openers, arriving only 15 minutes before Lorde. Naturally, we just so happened to insert ourselves in front of people who weren\u2019t as casual about the openers, and yes, we did get snapped at. Consider this my formal apology to The Japanese House, Empress Of and the two groups we squeezed between in the pit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
All was forgiven when Lorde came on just a few minutes later. When the woman who wrote the soundtrack to your coming-of-age experience is at arm\u2019s length, how could the rest not just melt away? Lorde wore baggy light wash jeans held up by a plain black belt, a blue baby T-shirt and baby blue boxers peeking out from her low-rise waistband. Casual, dynamic, flirty and, as we\u2019ll find, easily strippable.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Given that Lorde is on tour to support her fourth studio album, Virgin, opening with \u201cHammer,\u201d the album\u2019s opening track, is only sensible. This felt anticipated. It\u2019s bold, dancy and jolts audiences awake as a tone-setter \u2014 this isn\u2019t a therapy session; it\u2019s a dance club. Less expected? \u201cRoyals,\u201d a pull from Pure Heroine, as a follow up. We\u2019re used to artists wanting to reinvent themselves with the release of a new album \u2014 less used to them embracing their roots.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m ecstatic to be back at the most beautiful venue in the world. We\u2019re going to have fun, Berkeley, I can tell,\u201d she said before going into \u201cBroken Glass.\u201d The song is emotional, and, granted, so was the way she moved. Ragdoll-like, Lorde tugged on her belt as if it were her leash \u2014 tethering her, hurting her, even \u2014 before pulling it through her jean loops and tossing it offstage. Backup dancers Annalise Van Even and Evan Sagadencky mimicked her movements: limp-limbed yet acutely in control of motion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Fittingly, \u201cBuzzcut Season\u201d followed. Maybe it is a therapy session after all? Don\u2019t question it. And don\u2019t even think about questioning the massive industrial fan being rolled onto stage. \u201cPerfect Places\u201d followed, and we were back on the dance floor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was an extremely technical show. The screen making up the backdrop of the show was a standout, projecting various angles from the dozen or so cameras around the stage. During \u201cThe Louvre,\u201d she climbed the gargantuan speakers looming at the back of the stage and lit a smoking flare; I wondered if she\u2019d heard about the heist yet. During \u201cSupercut,\u201d she jogged on the treadmill that had been wheeled on stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sometime post-treadmill, Lorde found herself sitting on the floor, crisscrossed, as she said, \u201cI have a very vivid memory of playing here for the first time. I believe it was 2013,\u201d she said. \u201cThe older I get, I feel like it\u2019s really important to come full circle \u2026 I sit before you, a woman at peace. A woman excited for the future.\u201d Then, \u201cLiability\u201d played. There were tears too, lots of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMan of the Year,\u201d one of the prereleased singles ahead of Virgin, saw Lorde wrapping up her point. Turned toward the speakers and shielded by her two dancers, she peeled off her baby tee to bare her back to the audience. In this peak of vulnerability, she took a roll of duct tape and carefully bandaged her chest, rotating back around to reveal a metal strip across her bust. Though touching, I\u2019d argue Lorde was most vulnerable when entering the center of the crowd to close the set with \u201cRibs,\u201d which she called \u201cthe oldest and most precious song we\u2019ve got.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Lorde had returned to her rightful place, the lights were dimmed and LCD Soundsystem blared through the house speakers to usher the crowd out, I found I\u2019d accidentally stayed to see the pit empty. I\u2019d liked to have thrown an \u201ca-ha\u201d at the angry groups from the beginning, but I didn\u2019t. I suppose that is what being a woman at peace feels like.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019ll be honest: I was considerably late to the Hearst Greek Theatre for Lorde\u2019s Ultrasound World Tour last…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28713,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[21454,21453,21456,21459,21455,21464,8410,21449,21465,20275,19614,21463,143,145,144,21462,21452,21460,15680,21461,427,21458,21457,21450,21451],"class_list":["post-28712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-annalise-van-even","tag-broken-glass","tag-buzzcut-season","tag-empress-of","tag-evan-sagadencky","tag-grwm","tag-hammer","tag-hearst-greek-theatre","tag-lcd-soundsystem","tag-liability","tag-lorde","tag-man-of-the-year","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-perfect-places","tag-pure-heroine","tag-ribs","tag-royals","tag-supercut","tag-team","tag-the-japanese-house","tag-the-louvre","tag-ultrasound-world-tour","tag-virgin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}