I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: December 1, 2024] Girl in Red / Momma

My daughter and I saw Girl in Red in April of this year.  I was really surprised that she announced a new show in Montclair and when I asked her if she wanted to go, my daughter said yes!  Even though it was a Sunday school night.

I wondered how much of this show would be the same as last time.   And the answer is, a lot and yet not that much.  The set was the same except smaller.  But the video screen was bigger and made the videos easier to see.   But there was no vertical section like last time (which is fine as it was neat but didn’t add a ton to the show.  Oh and there was no giant swivel light/projector,  But honestly she doesn’t need that because she is a dynamo and everyone is there to see her.

Like last time, Marie was way overdressed in a sweater and button up shirt.  But she was committed to the outfit, she said.  And she proceeded to jump around and dance all over the stage for 90 minutes.

Like last time, she opened with the dancing title track of her new album.

She dove right into one of her faves, “girls” which had the crowd going nuts.  She followed it with “New Love” a song which she said she hadn’t yet performed this tour because she’s had bronchitis. 

And then she surprised everyone by calling opener Gigi Perez out for a duet of Gigi’s “Sailor Song.”  They jokes that everyone had just heard it (Gigi ended her set with it about 45 minutes ago) but no one cared because it was fun to see the two of them sing it together (Marie said she loved the song and loved it ever more when she found out that Gigi was a lesbian).  Then the two of them duetted on “bad idea!”  Marie later said that that was her first on stage duet with anyone–she had lost her duet virginity tonight.

Then the big red block rotated to reveal a piano and said it was time for a lullaby.  She didn’t really play the piano during the song, more like she either triggered it or looped the melody for “I’m Back,” although she did play some of the parts.  And played even more for the lovely “two queens in a king sized bed.”   She ended it was some “meow” vocals which may have been the end of the song or may have been a Billie Eilish song (she had done the Billie song a few nights ago that way).

She played fewer new songs this time, but did play two of my faves from the new album Phantom Pain and Too Much.  She also played the two-fer Octobers songs in a row like last time.  And then more or less proceeded to rock out for the rest of the show.

“You Stupid Bitch” was a big sing along and it segued perfectly into “Serotonin.”  She did slow things down with “midnight love” (my daughter’s favorite song) and Rue (which I see she doesn’t play at every show, but we’ve seen it 4 times!).  The end of the song builds to a big jumping climax and she had the whole room bouncing which was really fun to see from our slightly elevated perch.

She wanted everyone to keep up the bouncing, but there was a possible emergency on the crowd (although it didn’t look like anyone needed attention from where we were).  Marie composed an amusing improv while we waited.  But that was over quickly.  And she got the crowd psyched.

She hadn’t played “dead girl in the pool” last time but it received a huge reaction this time (my daughter thought that no one knew this early single, but clearly everyone did.”

And then came the rocking conclusion–“I wanna Be Your Girlfriend.”  At previous shows she had the crowd make a wall of death while she ran to the back of the pit and sang.  For whatever reason (it was too crowded? there was a barrier?) she didn’t do that.  But instead, she crowd surfed the whole room–“let’s see how far back I can get”).

Once again, I was so impressed by her stage presence.  She is a truly fantastic performer–knowing when and how to get the crowd hyped, talking a bit about her day (she went to the Lit Cafe), and being an all around great entertainer.

I was happy to see her again, but even happier to see that she had mixed up the show from just eight month ago.  That was pretty cool, too.

And amazingly, we managed to get out of the theater and to our car really quickly and I got her home at a not terrible 11:30.

& I’m Doing it Again, Baby! (2024)
∑ single (2022)
$ single (2021)
⊗ if I could make it go quiet (2021)
‰ chapter 2 (2019)
© chapter 1 (2018)
§ A Collection of Every Song I’ve Ever Posted on Soundcloud (2018)