Wednesday, July 24, 2024
By Julia Key
Last Saturday, grammy-winning singer and songwriter Olivia Rodrigo performed a sold-out show in Capital One Arena as part of her “GUTS World Tour.” As Rodrigo took the stage, flashing lights met the audience’s roar, screaming every lyric to each song she performed. The stage was set with a dynamic lighting system that accentuated Rodrigo’s every move. Rodrigo began with “bad idea right?” the second single released from her second studio album, “GUTS.”
Rodrigo’s high energy and melodic vocals are infectious, making you want to sing along and jump around with her. Her constant movement, whether it’s dancing, running around the stage, or smiling, keeps the energy levels high and the audience exhilarated. This unique energy is what sets her apart from other performers and draws in an audience of a wide age range.
After the first high-energy songs, Rodrigo had an outfit change and a mood change song-wise. She sang her sadder ballads while playing her signature purple guitar. Despite the mood change, the audience was still just as loud as Rodrigo herself with her microphone. The transition to the slower ballads was met with a hush of anticipation, and as Rodrigo’s emotive vocals filled the arena, the audience’s response was a mix of respectful silence and heartfelt cheers. To finish the streak of slow-tempo breakup songs, Rodrigo sat upon a purple moon that made a loop around the arena to sing “enough for you,” “logical” and interact with fans.
Olivia Rodrigo performs at Capital One Arena. Photo by Julia Keys.
When singing her debut hit “driver’s license,” Rodrigo played the piano while singing and the crowd was the loudest it was the whole night. As she sang “red lights, stop signs” the lights flashed red and when Rodrigo invited the crowd to sing the second to last lyric of the song, the crowd did not disappoint singing “cause you said forever now I drive alone past your street” word for word.
Throughout the show, Rodrigo sang two songs from “GUTS (spilled),” the deluxe version of her second album, which was only released in March of this year. The fans’ unwavering enthusiasm, despite the deluxe album’s recent release, was a testament to their dedication and love for Rodrigo’s music.
When Rodrigo sang one of her more emotional songs about growing up, “teenage dream,” the stage screen played a compilation of videos of Rodrigo’s younger self. As the lyrics grew more tender and heartfelt, “they all say that it gets better, it gets better, but what if I don’t,” the videos change to those of fans in the crowd, symbolizing that so much great has come from her career, moving the crowd and Rodrigo herself to become emotional.
Rodrigo saved her five most teenage-angst songs for the encore and finale of her show and somehow the electric guitar became more blaring, the flashing lights got brighter, and the fans’ cheers grew louder. The final song she performed was “get him back!” and as Rodrigo used a megaphone and shouted the opening lyrics to the song about arguing with a boy she wants to get revenge on, somehow the crowd was still louder than Rodrigo herself and by the time the song was over the confetti was falling, the crowd was rumbling at the same volume up until the arena workers were sweeping the confetti off of the stage.
Overall, Rodrigo, her dancers, and her band matching the high-energy crowd singing every song word-for-word made for an amazing, ear-blasting show.