I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: September 30, 2023] Carly Rae Jepsen

Sometime in April, my daughter asked if we could go to the All Things Go Festival.  I had never heard of this Festival and assumed the answer was no.  But then I saw that it was at the Merriweather Post Pavilion which is exactly three hours away from us.  So when tickets went on sale, I managed to get two pre-sale tickets for Sunday.  And then when they went on proper sale, I managed to score two more for Saturday.

Sunday was  the far more important day for music.  I mean, the whole reason she wanted to go was to see boygenius (and Lana Del Rey).  But this was a great day of music to be sure.

It was a huge surprise to me that Carly Rae Jepsen was on this bill.  I hadn’t realized she was still making music since “Call Me Maybe.”  I was also utterly shocked to find out that she is thirty-eight!  And one of the oldest performers at the festival!

Turns out she’s not all that prolific, putting out a record every few years or so.  I wonder what else she’s up to.

We arrived for Carly and sat in the back.  Her show was the biggest we had seen so far with a big screen and flashing lights.  Hers was definitely a big performance (I mean, she is a huge pop star).

The crowd was very responsive and everyone was up and dancing.

I don’t know any of her songs (except Call Me Maybe) and I really wanted to like her (since she was at this festival).  I found that I did enjoy her songs, even though they were 100% pure pop.  The songs were fun and dancey and exactly what you’d expect a pop show to be like.  Although having seen a Katy Perry experience, I know what a pop performance can fully do.

We enjoyed the set but after about 8 songs my daughter was itchy to move on.  So we left our seats and walked around a little but, checking out some of the other things going on.  And then she started “Call Me Maybe.”  We were both so surprised!  We ran back down and stood in the middle of the sidewalk dancing and watching everybody else dancing to this pop masterpiece.

When it was over we hung around a bit but then we wandered up to the other stage area.  The plan was to hang out a bit during Mt Joy and then come back down for Maggie Rogers, but we both wound up crashing and so we left during Mt Joy.

CARLY RAE JEPSEN

1. Let’s Sort the Whole Thing Out ²
2. Run Away With Me €
3. Anything to Be With You ♥
4. Surrender My Heart ⊗
5. Talking to Yourself ⊗
6. Shy Boy ♥
7. Western Wind ⊗
8. Kollage ♥
9. Psychedelic Switch ♥
10. Call Me Maybe ⊄
11. Stay Away ²
12. Julien Ð
13. Bends ⊗
14. I Really Like You €
15. Want You In My Room Ð
16. The Loneliest Time ⊗
17. Beach House ⊗
18. All That €
19. Cut to That Feeling ¹

♥ The Loveliest Time (2023)