‘Promise me you will sweat, sing and dance’ requested New Zealand singer Lorde, as she set the tone for a euphoric Boardmasters weekend.
After touring the UK in 2022 during her ‘Solar Power World Tour’, two-time Grammy award winner, Lorde, surprised fans with a small European festival leg throughout August. One of these shows was the Friday headlining spot at Boardmasters Festival in Newquay, Cornwall.
With a multi-genre discography that encompasses heavily produced dance songs to acoustic instrumentals, Lorde composed a festival set amalgamating her three albums to create a novel sound.
In an email to her fans on her mailing list, the 27-year-old described this as a special extension of the Solar Power tour, colloquially titled ‘The Night Vision Edition’. This was manifested in the set design, which included a large spherical centrepiece veiled with reflective discs.
Starting with her Grammy Award winning song ‘Royals’, Lorde could not be seen as she sang behind the lunar facade, immediately wilding up the crowd without any physical presence and showcasing the intoxicating capacity of her sound alone.
Following with ‘Solar Power’ - the first single from her most recent album of the same name - she revealed herself in a blue sequin outfit, complimenting the set design. She then took a second to introduce herself, expressing her awe of the location and requesting the audience to ‘sweat, sing and dance’ and even ride one of the incandescent fairground rides she could see from the stage. Proceeding to energise the crowd with her dance-pop Disclosure collaboration, ‘Magnets’, her wish was immediately met.
This energy remained consistent as she performed remixed versions of ‘Secrets from a Girl (Who’s Seen it All)’, ‘The Path’ and ‘California’, retrospective cuts from her third album. The singer’s rebellion against normality was then presented in a cathartic performance to the instrumental of ‘Hardfeelings/Loveless’ from her fan-favourite 2017 sophomore album Melodrama.
The quiet intimacies of Lorde shows were not lost with this redesign. She slowed down mid set to come closer to the audience both physically and emotionally as she balanced on a speaker to give a vulnerable speech that segued into Liability - the elegy of her sophomore album. This brought some of the audience to tears.
The standout moment was the surprise debut of two new songs: fan-named ‘Silver Moon’ and ‘Invisible Ink’. Starting with ‘Silver Moon’, Lorde addressed the crowd over an electronic beat, “this is a song I haven’t played to anyone before,” shocking all to attentive silence. The sonics emblematic of those from her sophomore album, it was immediately evident that this was another Lorde hit. ‘Invisible ink’ followed – lyrically not as memorable as the first but exploring a similar sound.
Ending the show with nostalgic ballad ‘Ribs’ and dance hit ‘Green Light’, the audience were left served with an emotional cocktail of euphoria, nostalgia and adrenaline. This feeling was palpable as crowds traipsed away from the stage - Lorde’s energy setting the tone perfectly for the weekend to follow.
Image courtesy of Maanya Chandhock.
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