It was raining heavily Thursday night in Montreal. But in Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier at Place des Arts, Lorde shone bright sunshine.
Posted at 7:00 a.m.
Solar Power, his most recent album, is the perfect remedy for bad weather or bad moods. She presented most of the pieces on the occasion of this North American tour which took her to our country. It was lovely.
We were also able to dive back into her first two opuses, those that made her one of the princesses of pop. Yes Solar Power moving away from more accessible tones, the singer punctuated her performance with some of her old hits to create a nice balance.
Lorde appeared on stage in a circle of light, a reference to the sun, which only allowed us to see her silhouette against the light.
She then appeared when performing Homemade Dynamite. In a pale open bra and shirt and simple black pants, the musician greeted her audience at the Solar Power Tower. “I love coming to Montreal, she confided. There’s something different over here. And given the mad energy of the crowd, we believed her. There was something in the air Thursday night.
Opportunities to cry and dance
Buzzcut Seasontaken from Pure Heroine (2013), gave him the opportunity to climb a staircase erected in the middle of the stage on a rotating platform. A smart way to always keep the performance visually stimulating. A huge screen behind the stage, platforms on each side and this giant staircase were enough to create an atmosphere that was sometimes electrifying, sometimes sober or intimate, depending on the needs.
“Ready to cry? “asked the singer before launching into a touching interpretation of the melancholy Stoned at the Nail Salonnew song from the album Solar Power.
Vocally perfect, infusing her performance with powerful emotion, Lorde gave an incredible show.
The staging without excess and delicate, but still imposing, allowed the artist to move in space, while his musicians also moved according to the songs.
Big comeback
After a first change of costume, it was in a long purple dress that she sang the superb The Path. His singers, throughout the evening, made it possible to recreate this stacking of voices that we so appreciated on Solar Powerwhich vibrates a psychedelic wave.
Lorde is one of those artists who sometimes give no sign of life for years and then come back to us with a new musical approach, a changed artistic vision. After almost five years of absence, the New Zealander’s pop has become more psychedelic, more luminous too.
Going back 10 years has allowed us to rediscover the techno rhythm of Ribs. If Lorde seems rather introverted in everyday life, on stage she is majestic, energetic, totally in control of the moment she offers. She interacts with her audience, makes this shared moment a communion. The artist also says during the show that he had to work hard so that the tour and the concerts are no longer sources of constant anxiety, as was the case before.
Hard Feelings/Loveless then Liability were the occasion for a softer moment, during which Lorde, seated on her stairs, took us back to the time of Melodrama (2017).
After Secrets from a Girl and a new costume change (the dress giving way to a pink satin ensemble), mood ring, Sober, Supercut (a good time to dance and jump on the spot!), Perfect Places, Solar Power (a song to “make the feeling of the sun’s heat last on the skin”), Green Light (another room conducive to letting go), then Oceanic Feeling followed.
Wherever she draws from her repertoire, Lorde puts her heart into it. Electricity flows between it and its fans. The moment is beautiful to see and to live.
The reminder (of course) made it possible to launch the famous and unavoidable Royals, the one that made Lorde famous ten years ago. The show ended on a perfect note with Team.
Lorde did not leave the stage until two hours after arriving. The radiant energy (solar!) of the evening spent with her was so pleasant that even the pouring rain on the way back could not prevent the light from continuing to shine in our heads for a long time.
Special mention here to Remi Wolf and his musicians, who gave a solid opening performance. All in voice, the Californian artist has also helped to make people forget the gray weather outside. To be followed closely.