“I don’t wanna play ‘Not My Fault’, but they’re here,” Reneé Rapp said to her band on stage, gesturing to the packed crowd in front of her.
The pop artist sold out Maryland’s Merriweather Post Pavillion on Oct. 6, with nearly 19,000 people in attendance. The star is touring for her second album, ‘Bite Me,’ which was released in early August.
‘Not My Fault’ featuring Megan Thee Stallion is a single Rapp released for the ‘Mean Girls: The Musical’ movie in 2023. While some fans in the audience were confused about her original disdain towards the song, others knew this was a bit the witty pop star played at each of her live shows.
Despite staring at nearly 19,000 faces, Rapp was able to create a deep connection with each audience member. During the show, she gave a shout-out to the general admission fans who lined up hours before doors to get a good spot on the venue’s lawn. She also pointed to the fans in the seated sections and paid extra attention to those squished in front of her, in the pit.
During the second song in her set, ‘Kiss it Kiss it,’ Rapp put a kiss camera on the screen, which featured two different couples in the crowd. Later on in the show, Rapp gave the microphone to an eager fan in the pit to sing the interlude part in ‘At Least I’m Hot.’
The pop artist’s crowd interactions have always been top-tier, with specifically designed chants for some of her songs. One of the most popular chants occurs during her song ‘Pretty Girls,’ where she has the crowd conversationally yell back at her during the bridge.
Rapp, who is known to be “un-media trained” by the internet, always makes time to read some signs excited fans bring to her show. A plain white sign that read “I told people I was at a funeral” caught her eye Monday night.
The fan’s excuse to come to the show was to say his grandmother died, he told Rapp. She immediately laughed, circling back to the statement she made at the start of her show. “My grandma’s here, so watch your mouth!”
While Rapp spent a lot of time interacting with her fans, she still presented a show that showed off her vocal range. The former Broadway star laid out on a grand piano to belt some of her slow songs on the set list, ‘Sometimes’ and ‘That’s so Funny,’ leaving not one audience member with dry eyes. Rapp also sang the second song she ever released, ‘In the Kitchen,’ along with the title track from her first album, ‘Snow Angel,’ both of which showed off her impressive vocal background in musical theater.
Rapp’s performance outshone her set design, which was limited to a star-shaped stage— playing into the motif she had in her merch and the background design projection— and a chandelier, which appeared mid-show.
Despite the set being simplistic, the graphics she displayed on the big screen during each song were not. She went from Reneé cams, which followed her every movement, to lyrical graphics and even newspaper headlines.
Rapp’s setlist, which was given to a fan at the end of the show, featured twenty songs and lasted about an hour and a half. She captured the crowd’s fleeting attention for all 90 minutes, with people crying, screaming and chanting each word of every song.
“Thank you, Maryland!” she said, waving goodbye to the starstruck crowd and disappearing into the curtains.