Lizzie McAlpine @ 3Arena

By Fatima Krida

Attending a concert usually follows a certain pattern these days, wait hours in line, avoid the campers who queue overnight for the best spot, stand in a cramped room waiting in anticipation only to be disappointed when the opener arrives, then once the main act comes on stage be unable to see them through a sea of phones. At Lizzy McAlpine’s show, none of that is on the table. There’s no opener, no fancy set design, just Lizzy and her band sat on stools, headphones on. The show attempts to extend an invitation to be part of the studio experience; suddenly the audience is transported from 3Arena to Nuffer Ranch studio, where Older was recorded. As an audience member you’re not just watching Lizzy McAlpine, you’re watching a band that is clearly close jamming out for an hour and a half.There were times in the show where instruments took center stage not McAlpine, jazz solos and two minute intervals of piano that left the audience just as enthused as when McAlpine sings heartbreakingly of her grief. 

McAlpine talks very little to the audience and when she does it’s not rehearsed but simply what she feels. She spoke of the complicated relationship she’s had with touring (McAlpine canceled her previous European tour citing mental health challenges as the reason why), but the crowd are there with her, cheering when she says how excited she is to finally be touring in a way that makes her feel happy and comfortable. In an age where the boundaries of celebrities are being spoken of more and more, in that room it felt as if everyone was respectful and on McAlpine’s side. 

The setlist is the album front to back. McAlpine has spoken of her annoyance of people attending her shows only to hear ‘Ceilings’, which went viral on TikTok. With this show the hit doesn’t come till the end. Opening with Older’s opening song ‘The Elevator’ , McAlpine takes the audience through a range of emotions, the feeling of realizing a relationship is over whilst you’re still in it, guilt, grief, anxiety over how fast everything moves. The show feels so intimate and personal that the Joni Mitchell cover placed halfway through the setlist feels natural. As McAlpine begins to sing ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ by Mitchell, suddenly it feels as if we’re scrolling through our own playlist, trying to find music that relates to our emotions, McAlpine almost turns into a friend shifting through songs to make you feel better when you’re going through the worst of times. McAlpine breaks down the barriers between audience and artist with the warm ambiance on stage, lamps and rugs – all of it turns the show into your friend’s living room. 

Despite all of this, the show falls into typical concert pitfalls. McAlpine goes off stage and comes back for the encore, a truly unnecessary concert convention. During the encore, she sings two tracks from the deluxe version of Older, entitled Older (and Wiser), and throws in a surprise song played acoustically. There’s no choreography in the show, in fact McAlpine doesn’t move from her stool apart from to move to the piano and collect her flowers at the end of the show. This somehow creates an almost phone free concert, perhaps because at times you can’t even see McAlpine. What shines is the music and when it’s this beautiful you simply can’t complain.