[ATTENDED: June 2, 2022] Aurora
I
love Aurora. She puts on a great show and is just chock full of positive energy. We saw her two years ago and I was excited to see her again.
After a break, Aurora came out.
Last time, she had giant jellyfish hanging from the ceiling. This time she had a curtain in the back of the stage a giant circle behind her. It acted as a backdrop and a light source.
Her new album, The Gods We Can Touch had just come out and she played a number of songs from it. Even though many of her songs are dancey, she had an acoustic guitar for “everything Matters” (along with electronic keys and drums).
Her song “Blood in the Wine” is a wonderfully passionate song with a fantastic hook that I can’t get out of my head.
Of course, Aurora has her dedicated fans. Several of them brought her gifts. Someone even gave her a teapot. (How would she bring that home in her suitcase?)
It’s easy to think of Aurora and her fan base (“Warriors”) as a bit too much, as she is practically a living embodiment of a Norwegian fairy. But she is so sincere, that her passion as she talks between songs (in her near-perfect English, faltering just enough to make it all the more effective) is palpable. And if you aren’t moved by a song like “Warrior” (which everyone sings along to) then you are too hardened by life.
Aurora seems like her music would be ethereal and aloof, but a song like “A Temporary High” has a pounding drum beat.
She does of course mellow things out once in a while, like in the gorgeous “A Dangerous Thing” with the beautiful if devastating chorus
There’s no end to the fallYou keep on getting better, I keep forgettingThere’s no love in the endI hope you will comeI keep on losing feathers, I keep forgettingThere’s no love in the end
And when she played “Exist for Love,” a delightful acoustic ballad (and one of the most straightforward songs she has written) all of the Warriors held paper hearts in front of their phone lights (which were handed out before the show). It looked pretty cool and Aurora seemed genuinely surprised by the gesture, so that was neat.
Perhaps one of the best dance songs of the last few years is “Cure for Me.” A great beat, a cool earworm of a melody and excellent lyrics. And when she sings it the whole room goes berserk. She followed that song with one of the best, most uplifting songs of the last few years “Queendom.” Another empowering, song that is all about inclusivity. These two songs should make everyone feel warm and welcome and should be played everywhere. And I’m sad that they are not better known.
She followed these two songs with a much darker song–a great melody, thumping drums and lyrics of foreboding:
You cannot eat money, oh noWhen the last tree has fallenAnd the rivers are poisonedYou cannot eat money, oh no
She ended the set with her first single, the exuberant “Running with the Wolves.”
Aurora came out and did a tender encore of “Through the Eyes of a Child,” a sweet ballad, but not the kind of song I wanted to go home on, so I was pretty psyched that she followed it up with the bouncy “Giving in to the Love.”
So that was eight songs from the new album (ten if you include the taped intro and outro music) out of fifteen songs. And yet the show didn’t feel like it was missing anything.
I do agree with one reviewer that the stage was a bit spare–although even last time with the jellyfish, she doesn’t go in for a lot of flash. She’s more about her own personality and her own dancing which comes though in everything she does.
You can feel Aurora’s joy as she sings and interacts with the audience. And that warmth is what it’s all about.
It’s also pretty cool that her set has gotten longer (perhaps with only one opening act). Playing sixteen songs instead of fourteen, but we’d all love a few more songs I’m sure!
| Union Transfer 2022 | Union Transfer 2019 | Bowery Ballroom 2018 |
| The Forbidden Fruits of Eden [tape] | Chrurchyard ⊗ | Nature Boy |
| Heathens ⇑ | Warrior ∀ | Warrior ∀ |
| Runaway ∀ | Gentle Earthquakes ⊗ | Gentle Earthquakes ⊗ |
| Everything Matters ⇑ | All Is Soft Inside ⊗ | Under Stars * |
| Blood in the Wine ⇑ | Murder Song (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) ∀ | Forgotten Love ⊗ |
| Warrior ∀ | Runaway ∀ | Murder Song (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) ∀ |
| A Temporary High ⇑ | The Seed ⊄ | Runaway ∀ |
| A Dangerous Thing ⇑ | It Happened Quiet ⊗ | Soft Universe ⊗ |
| Exist for Love ⇑ | Animal ℵ | Queendom ⊗ |
| Infections of a Different Kind ⊗ | Forgotten Love ⊗ | All is Soft Inside ⊗ |
| The River ⊄ | I Went Too Far ∀ | Animal ℵ |
| Cure for Me ⇑ | Running with the Wolves ∀ | I Went Too Far ∀ |
| Queendom ⊗ | encore | The Seed ⊄ |
| The Seed ⊄ | Infections of a Different Kind ⊗ | Running with the Wolves ∀ |
| Running with the Wolves ∀ | Queendom ⊗ | encore |
| encore | Through the Eyes of a Child ∀ | |
| Through the Eyes of a Child ∀ | ||
| Giving In To the Love ⇑ | ||
| A Little Place Called the Moon [tape] |
* early single
∀ All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend (2016)
⊗ Infections of a Different Kind Step 1 EP (2018)
⊄ A Different Kind of Human Step 2 (2019)
⇑ The Gods We Can Touch (2022)
ℵ new unreleased
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