I had a brief interruption to my POP Montreal Day 4 plans on September 27 when I redeployed myself to cover Lorde at the Bell Centre after Montreal Rocks found itself without a reviewer. I’ll apologize in advance — I was on Tumblr in 2013 when Pure Heroine came out, and I listened to the whole album over the course of a few years. Then I heard “Supercut” and “Green Light” when Melodrama came out, but fewer people were trying to convince me to listen to Lorde, so I fell off the bandwagon. Later, I became reintroduced with “What Was That?,” “David,” “Man of the Year,” and her newly installed carabiner. But I wasn’t able to get tickets when they went on sale, so I went into The Ultrasound World Tour completely blind.
While waiting to get through security after I picked up my tickets at the box office, I overheard two girls gossiping, “How many performative men do you think we’ll see?” “Loads.” Rib-hurting laughter. Then once I was through, I was able to see The Japanese House and Blood Orange before being blessed by the Lorde.
There was a booth set up by REVERB, against fast fashion for concert outfits, and honestly, I forgot that people buy outfits specifically for concerts instead of rooting through their closets. I also saw so many fans with tops made out of duct tape without anything underneath it, stuck on all the way around. Did y’all not learn not to do that on Tumblr when Pure Heroine was making the rounds? PSA: please don’t stick duct tape on your skin — ever — but certainly not for several hours while you’re jumping around and screaming, or you’ll join me in the “duct tape scars on my honey” Destroya by My Chemical Romance fan club.
But it’s okay because I elected to wear my actual binder, Levi’s jeans, a vintage leather jacket, and boots. When Lorde came out, we were both wearing black Levi’s and Calvin Klein boxer briefs, although I would like to inform my editor that I kept my jeans firmly on for the entire concert. If you told 14-year-old me I’d see Lorde in cherry red boxers, I’d have laughed in your face. I wonder how many baby gays saw a girl in boxers for the first time and how many gay awakenings that triggered in Centre Bell during the concert. In the wise words of Lorde, “Sometimes you just gotta fuck around on a Saturday night.”
She was never in her boxers without a shirt, but during “Man of the Year,” her shirt fully came off, and the front of her chest was covered in duct tape, but it looked much sturdier than in the “Man of the Year” music video. She also started with silver glitter on her elbows, fingernails, and rings of glitter on her fingers, but by the end of the concert, she had silver glitter everywhere. Plus, I got to hear “Buzzcut Season” with a buzzcut!
After “Big Star,” she had an extended and very heartfelt speech:
“I’m still really getting used to playing to this many people… We’re the freaks, you know? It’s sort of, it’s always surprising to me that we get the big room on a Saturday night, like what is happening?? But it’s so cool too, because it means that all of these people have something in common. Which is so beautiful and, uh, increasingly rare. To have an hour and forty-five minutes’ worth of anything in common with this many other people. It’s beautiful.
And for most of my life until — you’d be surprised, quite recently — I felt incredibly alone, always. I was an island.”
[Crowd cheers and several people scream ‘We love you!!’]
“You’re fucking me up. I felt alone, and I sang from that place over and over. And this year of my life is really making it hit home for me that I have this whole group of people who care about me. And that, in turn, each of us have a whole fucking group. There are so many of us here right now. This room can hold you. It can take care of you. If you fall apart in the next hour, you will have ten people holding your hand, I promise.
So tonight I am so grateful for my community on the stage, under the stage, behind the stage, and in front of the stage. It’s a journey, you know, and for as long as you will have me, I will keep coming back, and I will bring you new stories. I promise you that, Montréal.”
No stories or theatrics were spared. There were several set changes, wardrobe updates, roving lights, backup dancers, and enough confetti that it made it to the mid-100s and into my binder, which is a feat in itself. It’s also refreshing to see an artist just give in to dancing to their own music. Her freedom of movement made the concert feel much more intimate than it was.
She also started singing “David” on stage and then descended into the pit towards the B stage in a jacket that glowed from the inside out with yellow light panels, so you could follow her movement through the crowd from the seats. She also did the encore in the sound booth at the back of the pit, which made it feel like a small pop-up gig. Also, a massive congratulations and acknowledgement that Pure Heroine, her first album, turned twelve on the day of the Montreal concert, so we got to celebrate Lorde’s success with her, which was surprisingly wholesome.
Setlist
- Hammer
- Royals
- Broken Glass
- Buzzcut Season
- Favourite Daughter
- Perfect Places
- Shapeshifter
- Current Affairs
- Supercut
- No Better
- GRWM
- The Louvre
- Oceanic Feeling
- Big Star
- Liability
- Clearblue
- Man of the Year
- If She Could See Me Now
- Team
- What Was That
- Green Light
- David
Encore (B stage, sound booth)
- A World Alone
- Ribs
Review – Ashtyn Turner
Photos – Eric Brisson
