Lorde affirms stardom, crushes her tour kickoff in Milwaukee
“We’ve got something pretty different for you,” Lorde promised during the opening night of her “Melodrama” North American tour Thursday at the BMO Harris Bradley Center.
We wouldn’t expect anything less from the New Zealand native — or anything shy of greatness.
Just two albums in, Lorde’s accomplishments include her game-changing 2013 debut, “Pure Heroine,” that ushered in an era of minimalist pop; a superb sophomore album, last year’s “Melodrama”; and conquering festivals and award shows beginning when she was a teenager (she’s 21 now).
Her own exceptional standards have set a high bar — but true to her word, Lorde’s show was different, not so much for what it included as for what it didn’t.
For an arena pop tour, the staging was remarkably stark. There were flashy lights, but no fireworks or bombastic video displays. There were a couple of costume changes, but nothing dramatic, and the contemporary dance routines — choreographed by Milwaukee native Andrew Winghart — were elegantly understated.
But the staging was a fitting extension of Lorde’s less-is-more approach, allowing the focus to remain on her words and her presence.
She’s several years removed from “Heroine” track “Ribs” with its refrain of “It feels so scary getting old,” but Lorde sang those words with even greater urgency Thursday, like she was starting to more fully appreciate the gravity of that sentiment.
For “Melodrama” track “Supercut,” Lorde’s voice and interactions with Winghart encapsulated the song’s blissful romantic naivety while slyly alluding to the melancholy behind the wish fulfillment.
A gorgeously sparse “Writer in the Dark” — in which Lorde says she’ll love someone “till my breathing stops” even though she’s moved on — was spontaneously illuminated by smartphone lights across the arena.
She also did a vulnerable performance, accompanied by a lone keyboard, of Frank Ocean’s “Solo,” which she performed for the first time Thursday.
The audience was in a hush during these quieter, compelling moments of expression. And those moments also made the bolder parts of the show pop like bursts of bright color.
Lorde sang the end of “The Louvre” on her back, carried around the stage by her six dancers. A transparent rectangle that served as a separate staging area for the dancers most of the night was suspended in the air; during “Yellow Flicker Beat,” it was tilted, with a dancer literally sliding inside the rectangle as part of her routine.
Then “Green Light,” the finale, those six dancers climbed rope ladders to perform suspended in that rectangle in the air, as Lorde sang and jumped and danced below them with infectious euphoria.
If the rest of the “Melodrama” run lives up to Thursday’s confident and charismatic first show, this is going to be the must-see tour of the spring. But with Lorde, we wouldn’t expect anything less.
For its long overdue first Milwaukee show, the guys from opening act Run the Jewels were both towering titans and down-to-earth Average Joes.
The duo of hip-hop veterans Killer Mike and El-P took the stage to Queen’s “We Are The Champions” with Mike promptly vowing they would “(Expletive) (expletive) up.” But the alpha intensity was to an extent a bit of a ruse, with the guys sweetly giving each other affectionate hugs and kisses; poking fun at their weight; and praising the ladies in their lives and celebrating the first day of Women’s History Month.
Ultimately, it was that combination of stone-cold swagger and everyman appeal that made Run the Jewels so endearing during a 45-minute set of hard-hitting, heart-pumping party tracks like “Legend Has It” and “Close Your Eyes.”