Written by: Gavin Rutledge 

I got a chance to see Lorde play in Houston, and it was honestly one of the most fun experiences of my entire life. Before my freshman year of high school, I had only ever listened to individual songs from bands and never any full length albums (which I guess kind of makes me a poser, but whatever). The first album I ever listened to all the way through was Lorde’s debut album, Pure Heroine. Her music really resonated with me because she was only a couple of years older than me, so I felt deeply connectedto her songwriting and the themes of the album. After waiting four years for a follow-up album, she finally released Melodrama last year and I instantly fell in love with it. She gave up her dark, minimalist production for a more poppy approach, but managed to keep the same kind of nostalgia that I liked to much on Pure Heroine. The album received a lot of critical praise, including a Grammy nomination for album of the year (insert “It’s what she deserves” gif here). So needless to say, I was very excited when I got tickets to see her on her Melodrama Tour.

The show itself was a really crazy experience. Tove Styrke and Run the Jewels put on amazing shows as openers, but it was pretty obvious that most of the people there just wanted to see Lorde. It was so much fun getting to see an artist in concert that had been so imp

ortant to me over the last few years. She ended up playing almost the entirety of Melodrama, along with most of her popular songs off of Pure Heroine like “Team” and “Royals.” After asking the crowd if they liked Frank Ocean, she went in to singing “Solo” off of his most recent album Blonde, which was exciting because I got to see one of my favorite artists cover a song off of one of my favorite albums. Her stage presence was really electrifying; when she wasn’t dancing, she was hitting the high notes of her slower songs like it was nothing. In general she just seems like such a genuine person. She talked about how happy she was to play in Houston after her show there was cancelled last year due to Hurricane Harvey, which I thought was sweet of her to talk about since the storm heavily affected everyone in that area last year. It seemed like she had a lot of fun connec

ting with her fans and putting on a really extravagant show for everyone.

If she plays any festivals this year or ends up adding extra tour dates, I would definitely recommend seeing Lorde live. Obviously I’m pretty biased, but even if you don’t have any kind of connection to her music before seeing her, you absolutely will after you watch her perform. A lot of her vocals remind me of Kate Bush, and she takes a lot of inspiration from Fleetwood Mac in terms of her songwriting, so if you like either of those artists then Lorde is definitely worth checking out. Her music has really changed the way that I view pop music, and I’m incredibly excited to see what direction she takes her style in the future. I’ll absolutely be seeing her again whenever her next album comes out; I just hope that I don’t have to wait 

four more years. 

Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for SiriusXM & Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images