The New Zealand singer LORDE played her only Germany show last week in Berlin. To sell out Columbiahalle on her first visit is impressive. I first heard Royals last May and I won’t lie – I loved it: the Larry Clark inspired video, her teen-critiquing lyrics, her age, her overall demeanour. I’m at the gig to fuel that inner teen angst in me but also to see what she’s like on stage and whether the hype’s worth it. She’s talented, undoubtedly- her lyrics are sharp and smart and she’s got her head screwed on. Thing is, the fame she’s received makes me question the world on the other side, rather than the singer herself.
The crowd she’s attracted is one I’m not familiar with. There’s a fair few families around, obviously a lot of teenage girls, a few gay guys – and everyone’s very German. She’s got a lot of presence on stage with her wavy brown hair, which she whips about a lot. She’s dressed in a black top and brown wide pleats. There’s two others on stage with her: a keyboardist cladded out in a bright silver blazer and a male drummer in a white button-down. She greets the crowd and says ‘Thank you Berlin for having us.’ The ‘us’ in that sentence makes me smile. She’s genuinely so very grateful: a sentiment that she repeats and one that can certainly be felt. There’s a point during the show, where I find myself a bit bored; it’s flat, there’s no oomph. But then, just before starting a new song, she says, ‘This band’s played in this venue before’ and kicks into THE REPLACEMENTS. No one gets it. No one knows who THE REPLACEMENTS are. It’s not the only cover she delivers; Easy by SON LUX also makes its way into her set and I’d say she has the most fun during these two songs. She pulls out all the stops; it’s all about the dancing, the jerky movements and the whipping of her hair. I’m immersed, I think it’s great.
Then there’s that point we’ve all kinda been waiting for, at least I have. The bit where Ella Yelich-O’Connor talks to the crowd and tells us her story. She’s been plastered all over the news for the last however many months and I was interested to see what she’d be like as a person, conversing with the crowd. Turns out: she’s great. She’s grounded; she’s grateful; she’s gifted. She talks of her first show in Berlin 9 months ago, where she played in front of 90 people and hated it. Then she fills us in on a party she threw, before the fame, when her parents were away, a ‘baby Project X’. She confides in us about her fearing of growing up, ‘so much it wakes me up.’ And yes, it’s cheesy, it’s sentimental, but as the daughter of a poet, a singer whose lyrics are influenced by Ginsberg and Plath, she’s eloquent and articulate and it gives me goose bumps. I know, but hey, the girl’s done well for herself and she’s not lost sight of where she came from. She addresses the 15 and 18 year olds in the crowd, telling them not to be scared of growing up. You can hear the over-30s groaning. But that’s okay, she’s relating to those nearest to her and I like that. Quite in the same way that they relate to her, she tells us that before the show three girls gave her Brave New World, a copy of which they stole from their school library. There’s a disconnect between her and the majority of the crowd, as I expected. I bet those three girls were also the only ones who danced to Swinging Party. The show comes to and end with LORDE stating ‘We’ve got two more songs for you’ (again with the plural), and she briefly exits the stage. She comes back in a bright gold cape and belts out the chorus of her last song as paper confetti is strewn across the audience. This is LORDE’s version of an encore and as an avid hater of them; it makes me like her even more.
––
LORDE