(Photo courtesy of: Rolling Stone) “Olivia Rodrigo sets the stage for her second studio album’s world tour.”
Tyler Browne
Connector Editor
Pop superstar Olivia Rodrigo brought her “Guts” World Tour to Boston’s TD Garden for a fun-filled evening. Rodrigo, touring in support of her second album, “Guts”, performed an energetic 23-song set for a sold-out crowd, mixing her newer material with tracks from her debut effort, “Sour”.
The night began with an opening set from Chappell Roan, giving her final performance of the tour. Roan, an up-and-coming artist, played nine songs, all from her debut album, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess”. Perhaps the highlight of Roan’s set was “Hot to Go!” where she had the crowd perform a “YMCA”-esque dance, spelling out the letters of the title.
Just 20 minutes after Roan left the stage, Rodrigo and her band took the stage, kicking off the show with “Bad Idea Right?” and “Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl”, both high-energy rock tracks.
This was followed up with four ballads. The hit “Vampire” segued into “Traitor”. After this, Rodrigo sat at a grand piano for her breakthrough single, “Driver’s License”, where she encouraged the crowd to belt the lyrics with her.
Before “Teenage Dream”, Rodrigo gave a short speech where she talked about her fears of growing up. During the song, the large screen behind the stage showed home videos of Rodrigo as a young girl, singing and playing with friends and family.
After a brief interlude, Rodrigo returned to the stage for “Pretty Isn’t Pretty”. After an energetic rendition of “Love Is Embarrassing”, Rodrigo introduced the crowd to her team of dancers and the members of her band, before singing “Making the Bed” while lying on a bed that rose to the stage.
For “Logical” and “Enough for You”, Rodrigo performed from a giant moon which flew through the arena, allowing her to interact with fans sitting in the back of the crowd.
After a ballad-heavy middle section of the show, Rodrigo returned to the stage for the high-powered trio of songs that ended the main set. “Brutal”, the opening track from “Sour”, is a heavy rock track that features lyrics that lament the high school experience (written when Rodrigo was just 17) and express Rodrigo’s wish to become an adult.
“Obsessed”, which was released just weeks ago as part of the deluxe “Guts (Spilled)”, is about Rodrigo’s obsession with a boyfriend’s ex-girlfriend, and featured the singer playing an electric guitar.
The final song of the main set was “All-American [Expletive]”. During the mid-section of the song, Rodrigo encouraged the crowd to think about something or someone that upsets them and scream in frustration, leading to perhaps the loudest moment of the evening.
The encore consisted of two songs. “Good 4 U”, from “Sour”, was an exceptional choice to kick the encore off, and sounded flawless.
The final song of the night was “Get Him Back”. Rodrigo’s vocal delivery, even 23 songs in, was perfect and the crowd matched her energy effortlessly. After the song ended, Rodrigo exited through the crowd, where she was surprised by Roan waiting in the front row.
Rodrigo’s vocals throughout the night were perfect. Her dancers provided interesting choreography to every song and her band sounded excellent. Rodrigo has taken the music world by storm over the past three years, and it is not difficult to see why.
