At her performance in London at the Eventim Apollo last night, McAlpine’s fans were treated with a one on one intimate experience at a 5,000 person sold out show.
The night began with a slow buildup of nature and bird sounds growing and echoing like the great outdoors. Applause and cheers filled the auditorium as McAlpine and her band took their chairs on stage. McAlpine took center stage with six instrumentalists joining her: drums, electric guitars, piano, percussion, and even a pedal steel. The audience was eager to listen to every word with bated breath as McAlpine opened with ‘The Elevator’ and an acoustic, almost country version of ‘Come Down Soon’.
After a few songs, McAlpine finally spoke and was met with a roaring heartfelt love from her crowd. Shyly, she introduced her song ‘Movie Star’, explaining that the song was about a time where her life sucked (as she then laughed it off by saying that most of her songs were like this). McAlpine’s confidence in front of the crowd grew during what could only be described as a sing-along to ‘All Falls Down’, with fans shouting her own lyrical prophecy back to her: “25 and a sold-out show”.
In between songs, McAlpine began to explain the reasoning for her stage setup. She revealed that her previous tour was very draining on her physical and mental health. After all, she believed she “had to be doing it like everyone else”, implying that she had to be standing and running around the stage at all times. She admitted to catching multiple illnesses touring like this and had felt inauthentic performing in a setting she wasn’t used to. So this time around McAlpine’s set was laid out like being in the studio with her. She wanted to let the audience become quiet observers into her musical process.
McAlpine continued her set by interchanging between various guitars or singing without one until at one point she stopped to join her bandmate on the piano. A silence fell over the Apollo venue as she reached out her fingers to the keys to play ‘Drunk, Running’ with a type of vulnerability we had not seen from her during the show.
Around the middle of her set McAlpine paused to explain an important discovery she had recently made by listening to Joni Mitchell for the first time. She explained that she “had no clue how it took (her) this long to discover (Mitchell)” and since that discovery, had “made it her mission to perform a different Joni song each night on tour”. McAlpine’s London fans were graced with a beautiful rendition of Mitchell’s ‘The Gallery’, performed solo with just a guitar. Ringing powerfully through a timid start on some higher notes, one could see what Mitchell’s music meant for McAlpine as she focused greatly.
The band joined McAlpine once more and we were met with another story, on how ‘Older’, the title track and name of her newest album, was written in only 20 minutes by McAlpine and bandmate Mason Stoops. Similarly, her song ‘Spring into Summer’ was written with her bandmates before their show in Boston where they performed it for the very first time with no rehearsals. “We’ve got it down this time”, McAlpine laughed last night, as they had to restart the song, bringing nervous but happy smiles to the faces on stage. Her final song before the encore, ‘Vortex’, had McAlpine back at the piano. Although we in the audience knew it wasn’t quite the final song yet, ‘Vortex’ ushered in the feeling of growing thoughts while watching a coming of age film.
It didn’t take long for McAlpine to return to the stage for the encore as the crowd was rowdy for more. Surprise song ‘Angelina’ was performed, a song McAlpine admitted she hadn’t played in a very long time. This was followed by ‘Pushing it Down and Praying’, and finally ‘Ceilings’. Her most-streamed song of all time, ‘Ceilings’, was turned into a magical, ambient and slowed down version that had the entire audience softly following along and breathing in tune with the young singer. McAlpine said a grateful goodbye and a “see you later” to her fans. She took a graceful bow with her band, took a few gifts from the audience, and said goodnight.
McAlpine has a few more dates on her 'Older' Tour and you can find tickets here.
Setlist:
‘The Elevator’
‘Come Down Soon’
‘Movie Star’
‘All Falls Down’
‘Staying’
‘I Guess’
‘doomsday’
‘Drunk, Running’
‘Broken Glass’
‘The Gallery’ (Joni Mitchell cover)
‘Older’
‘Better Than This’
‘March’ / ‘chemtrails’ / ‘Headstones and Land Mines’
‘Soccer Practice’
‘Spring Into Summer’
‘Vortex’
Encore:
‘Angelina’ (surprise song)
‘Pushing It Down and Praying’
‘Ceilings’
Molly Spencer
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