I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: October 1, 2023] Lana Del Rey

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.

While Muna was playing on the other stage, the Lana Del Rey crew assembled the stage for the final act.  I didn’t understand why boygenius was late in starting.  But they finished at 8, when they were supposed to.  The Lana set was fully in place before Muna finished.

Of all of the performers at this festival, Lana was the person I was least interested in seeing.  My take on Lana is that she plays a random melody on the piano (or guitar) and then looks out the window and literally describes what’s in front of her in a bored monotone.  I never would have guessed that she actually had a beautiful voice, because all I ever hear from her is bored monotone.

In fairness, I have never really heard any of her lyrics, aside from certain repeated refrains, so I had no idea that people found her lyrics inspirational.

But as they put the stage make up on, I was excited for her show.  I thought this was going to be a spectacle, because it sure looked like a spectacle.  There were steps and doorways, there was a small sitting area and two gigantic swings.  I imagined acrobats and just mega spectacle.

The stage was also set and 9:30 came and went.  For some reason, Lana was really late in starting, too.

I have just read this she is somewhat known for this lateness.  Hmm, that’s pretty shitty, especially since the curfew meant that her show was cut short.

But when she came out people lost their freaking minds.

I was excited to see what she was going to do but I was soon bored by her performance.  Everything she does seems to be deliberately slow and flat.  I mean, she looks and acts like an old movie star, too fragile to move quickly.  I wasn’t sure if it was just me but then I saw this review from Stereogum.

Lana Del Rey’s current stage show is a pop-star stage show, despite Lana herself doing very few of the things that pop stars are traditionally expected to do. For instance: Lana Del Rey does not dance, but she’s often surrounded by dancers. Sometimes, she strikes graceful poses that distantly echo whatever her dancers are doing. Most of the time, though, Lana simply stands still in the center of the stage while her dancers whirl around her or drape her in elaborate fabric. During “Bartender,” Lana sits off to the side of the stage at a little table while her dancers take center stage for a whole balletic routine. By the same token, Lana sounds spectacular onstage, her voice rich and communicative. But she doesn’t hit big notes. Instead, she has three backup singers who sometimes come out to roar out gospel-informed runs while Lana just kind of sways off to the side.

There was one point when someone hit a massively high note and I said, damn, Lana can really sing…. and then I saw that her mouth was closed and it was one of the backing singers who had hit the note.

I looked around, wondering if other people were unimpressed with her show, but no, it was only me.  Everyone was freaking out, crying, screaming.

Here’s more of that Stereogum review:

Over the past few years, we’ve seen a few pop stars, figures like Lorde and Billie Eilish, who work primarily in the field of vibes. Those artists all owe something to Lana Del Rey, the queen of vibes. Lana’s music is not energetic. It’s not fired-up. It’s not cathartic in any obvious way. Instead, Lana sings almost everything in a heavy-eyelid murmur, occasionally switching things up for a half-whisper or a Betty Boop coo. Her songs are soft and uncluttered and thoughtful. She writes catchy melodies and precise, emotive lyrics, and I usually sing along when I’m listening to her, but there is no Dashboard Confessional in Lana Del Rey. If she takes after any circa-2000 singer-songwriter type, it’s Cat Power. If you went to see Cat Power in 2000, you were not screaming anything. But when audiences come to see Lana Del Rey, they come to sing-scream — or, at least, this one did.

Every big, memorable line from every Lana song got a huge, echoing reaction. In the live-show context, those great Lana lines stopped being simply great lines on pretty songs. They became anthemic things to yell collectively — the “goddamn manchild” on set opener “Norman Fucking Rockwell,” the “fresh out of fucks forever” part of “Venice Bitch,” all of “Video Games.” We happened to be in a part of the crowd where people were going off to that stuff, and it was infectious. Lana’s richly atmospheric torch songs songs weren’t built to facilitate those singalong moments, but they did the trick anyway.

Then Jack Antonoff came out and everyone freaked out for him too.  I actually had no idea who he was, not being a fan.  They did two songs together and I think people liked it, although I’m not 100% sure.

My daughter really wanted to see the end of her setlist (we looked it up ahead of time to see if we should try to leave early to beat the crowd).  SO we had planned to stay until the end, but then she announced that she realized she would not be able to finish on time (which is what happens when you are 15 minutes late).  She announced that she was going to play the end of the set instead (which isn’t actually what she did, but whatever).

The point is, she played “Video Games” which was the big song my daughter wanted to hear.  We stayed for a little but longer and then my daughter said we could go.  I didn’t need to leave early, I mean, we are ten minutes from our hotel, so whatever.  But she was cool with that.  Although as we were walking away, we could hear her (quite clearly) and I think she was bummed she missed out on those final songs.

But I think she was happy with the set.  I was a little bummed not to have a little personal videos of the show.  Although I know I would just watch them to remind myself how much I didn’t really like the set, so that just seems petulant.

And that was the end of our first Festival.  I’m curious if she’ll want to go again next year.

Lana Del Rey

1. Norman Fucking Rockwell (shortened)  ⊗
2. Arcadia (shortened) ß
3. A&W (shortened) Π
4. Young and Beautiful Œ
5. Bartender ⊗
6. Chemtrails Over the Country Club ≅
7. The Grants (shortened) Π
8. Cherry (extended outro) ♥
9. Pretty When You Cry ∇
   Ride Monologue
10. Ride (shortened) √
11. Margaret (with Jack Antonoff) Π
12. Venice Bitch (with Jack Antonoff) ⊗
13. Video Games ♦
14. Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (Choir outro) Π
15. Ultraviolence (Extended intro) ∇
16. Born to Die (Shortened) ♦
17. Hope Is a Dangerous Thing for a Woman Like Me to Have – But I Have It ⊗

Originally the setlist looked like this

1-10 the same

• 11. Stand By Your Man (Tammy Wynett)
• 12. Blue Jeans
• 13. Ultraviolence
• 14. Born to Die (Shortened) ♦
• 15. Diet Mountain Dew
• 16. Summertime Sadness
• 17. Video Games ♦
• 18. Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd (Choir outro) Π
• 19. Hope Is a Dangerous Thing for a Woman Like Me to Have – But I Have It ⊗