Alice Phoebe Lou showed off raw, heartfelt vocals and an ethereal presence in her opening set for Clairo.
An angel had dropped straight from heaven, right upon the middle of the stage at Roadrunner. In her sparkly navy blue dress, Alice Phoebe Lou made her elegant entrance, opening for the Clairo concert in Boston.
After introducing herself softly to the audience, she started off with her song “Touch,” which could immediately become a favorite for any first-time listener. With a slow-paced drum beat beginning the song, Alice’s beautiful voice followed, and instantly the crowd couldn’t peel their eyes away. The yearning of the lyrics shined through her angelic voice, as she became one with her guitar: “I want the real thing, I want it bad / Want you to hold me like you never had.” Even the way she clinged onto her instrument felt poetic, the way she was holding it with that type of delicateness that mirrors how a mother would hold her child.
Alice’s performance felt raw and directly from her heart, speaking to that vulnerable spot in most of us that craves intimacy, whether that be emotional or physical like “Touch” describes. This song is all about loving at full throttle, utter devotion and desperate yearning. Although Alice Phoebe Lou sang about such a relatable, humane topic, she sang with an other-worldliness. With her long blonde hair, her porcelain skin, it felt as if some sort of fairy had crept out of some magical forest to sing the audience an ancient tale of longing. Listening to this song from Airpods versus from a live performance is very different. Not all artists can transform a venue into the setting of a storybook, but Alice did it with ease, as an opener with a time limit nonetheless.
Often openers can be treated a burden, the crowd usually counting down the minutes until the main show arrives. However Alice Phoebe Lou did the opposite—she was able to make one wish her performance lasted longer than it did. Every song ended with a loud, well-deserved applause as the audience had become mesmerized with her voice. Even within the crowd you could hear audible reactions to hearing her, whispering to their friend, “She’s so good.” Nobody seemed to be expecting her to catch everyone’s attention the way she did. She didn’t sing with a lack of energy either; she sang with gratefulness, like every second she had the opportunity to sing was like a gift. Her music also felt like a perfect match for the usual listeners of Clairo—the shared theme of sapphic romance, the woman-loving-woman stories that make beautiful and heartbreaking songs.
With pure melancholy, Alice Phoebe Lou lured the audience once again with her performance of her song “Only When I,” which speaks of that same self-sacrificial type of love and obsession. “Only when I touch my body / Only when I’m feeling naughty,” is just one example of Alice’s complete lyrical openness and honesty. She sings about all the desperate thoughts most people are ashamed to say aloud, the thoughts that run through our heads when love makes us forget about any ounce of self-respect. Alice’s soft, breathy voice sings these lyrics with such reverence for her own art. Sometimes live performances don’t do the studio versions of the songs justice. But no, in this case, Alice’s raw vocals are even more mesmerizing than her recorded ones.
As a non-American musician, she did a great job of making her mark on Boston. Anyone who was there to witness her artistry definitely added at least one of her songs to her playlist, if there wasn’t one in there already. It’s easy to believe that Alice Phoebe Lou flew here with angel wings instead of a plane because of the magic she created with her voice at Roadrunner.