Intimate Melodrama is pure dynamite
Partway through her concert on Wednesday night, Lorde paused to compare Christchurch’s Isaac Theatre Royal to a diorama. Something about the venue, with its cramped seating and squarish stage mouth, reminded her of peering into a little world inside a shoebox.
She said the comparison was appropriate because her new album, Melodrama, and its accompanying tour were like a diorama of her mind; a window into what she’d been thinking about.
Lorde last performed in Christchurch in 2014, when she was 17 and the Isaac Theatre Royal had not yet reopened.
She played Horncastle Arena, a venue that is not at all like a diorama. Presumably, she could have filled Horncastle again if she wanted to; it’s not like her popularity has waned in the intervening years.
By opting for the theatre, she swapped a venue with the capacity for almost 9000 for one with little more than 1200 seats.
The show Cantabrians got was essentially an arena spectacular stripped back to its essential parts and crammed into a much smaller space. And it was great.
Lorde performed before a backdrop of huge neon light sculptures, while dreamy pastel lofi footage played on a TV to the right of the stage. Overhead, a big neon sign lit up with the title of her album at various times: MELODRAMA.
She opened with one of the album’s bangers, Homemade Dynamite, before Disclosure collaboration Magnets and Tennis Court reminded us of her stuff stuff. ‘‘I know you’re in seats but this is a dancing kind of show, so…’’ she told the crowd, who were mostly sitting down.
A rendition of Buzzcut Season, which saw her sitting on the ground playing xylophone won enthusiastic applause.
Liability took on a kind of storytime feel as Lorde sat down to chat with the crowd over the songs melancholy piano chords. It was an interesting insight into her creative process, although she was so fluent you couldn’t help wondering if she’d been telling Dunedin exactly the same thing on Monday.
There was another moment of apparent spontaneity a few songs later when guitarist Ray joined her in the spotlight to cover Bruce Springsteen’s I’m on Fire. At least, it started as a Springsteen cover – Lorde wove some of her own lyrics into it so it became something else. She said it was the first time they’d ever done it.
A murky, pulsating version of
Royals got the audience singing along, before she launched into what, for me, was the best song of the night: Perfect Places. There was a moment during the song’s climax when it felt like the old theatre couldn’t contain all the noise, the emotion, like the walls
would burst and the gallery collapse into the floor.
When it ended, the whole crowd were on their feet and they stayed that way to sing along with every word of closing number Green Light.
For an encore, Lorde did some of Writer in the Dark without backing – heart-wrenching – and segued into Loveless.
In the recent Europe leg of the
Melodrama World Tour, Lorde played to theatres that seat thousands more than the theatre and when she travels to America next year the shows are lined up for arenas.
It’s nice she’s chosen to give her home country something different by playing these intimate venues.
The crowd certainly enjoyed it (although let’s face it, this was always going to be a Lorde love-in) – perhaps strangely, I found myself hoping Lorde did, too.