There I stood—5 feet tall in a sea of bodies towering over me—in the pit of the “Ultrasound Tour” at TD Garden in Boston on Sept. 26. I had to stand on the tips of my toes to even catch a glimpse of Lorde jumping and dancing across the stage. But I didn’t stand on my tiptoes for long—because soon enough, the entire pit and I jumped up and down with her, confetti crunching under our shoes, our hands up in the air, dancing to “A World Alone.”Â
Intermingled in the lasers, confetti, and wash of blue lights stood about 20,000 attendees, dancing with each other to the infectious synths of Virgin: Lorde’s fourth studio album. Instead of a competition to get as close as possible to the artist, the TD Garden pit was a dance floor and a celebration of community, despite never having met each other before. The experience was a prime example that Lorde’s goal is never to create a cult following, but rather a collective experience, to remind us that our experiences are not so different.
“Everyone in this stadium has something in common,” Lorde said, before performing “Liability.”
The songs
The “Ultrasound” setlist was curated from her entire discography, including 11 songs from Virgin, five songs from Pure Heroine, five songs from Melodrama and two songs from Solar Power.
Part of creating a bond with her audience at the concert was to encourage intimacy, starting with herself. On stage, Lorde is at her most uninhibited yet in full control. When Virgin was released in June, she described the album color as clear, to represent full transparency. By conducting onstage costume changes such as pushing off her jeans during “Current Affairs,” and putting grey duct tape on her bare chest during “Man of the Year,” Lorde shows her audience the processes of what she looks like during the “in-betweens” of herself, showcasing the bareness Virgin was meant to evoke.
the stage
Lorde, displaying the most stripped-down version of herself, is also projected in her stage design. She expertly harnesses the industrial aesthetic of Virgin by incorporating the metal stage equipment and interpolating it into her performance. Her stage props included a treadmill during “Supercut” and a large metal fan during “Buzzcut Season.” Her stage elements were intentionally sharp, metal and sleek to complement the jaggedness of her choreography. There was a large emphasis on light, primarily using lasers to encapsulate the album’s aesthetic. While much sparser than her previous tours, her stage was an extension of her transparency, showing the stage for what it is—wires and all.Â
In peeling away her superstar facade, she stood in front of her crowd, not as Lorde, but as Ella Yelich O’Connor, a woman who was not preaching purity, yet a return to herself and compelling her audience to do the same. By the end of the concert, everyone was at their most vulnerable and unadulterated, dancing to the bridge of “Ribs” as Lorde danced on stage.Â
The “Ultrasound Tour” was a reminder that when we are at our most transparent, we are the most lively. When nearly 20,000 people at TD Garden were encouraged to show their most unadulterated selves, they decided to dance. In opting to dance with her audience rather than at them, Lorde reaches within her greatest desires, and shares them with all of us.
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