I attended Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS Tour in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 9. Rodrigo is seriously a rock star. Her outfits, her energy and the dramatics in her performance, I am only able to compare it to what I imagine it was like watching Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock in 1969. Maybe I am being dramatic, but seriously, Rodrigo is single-handedly taking me back to my punk rock, angry-chick music phase.
This concert was so amazing and cinematic, it comes second only to Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour. Rodrigo’s energy through her entire set was palpable, even in the seats that I would consider the itch you get before a nosebleed. We were able to see her perfectly, and the choreography that her dancers performed for each song made it an even more enriching experience. She also floated around the arena on a purple crescent moon for two songs. She waved at us, sang beautifully and, most importantly, it was something I had never seen before. It was ethereal.
Online, I have seen some parents, specifically TikTok moms, talk about how they took their kid to the GUTS Tour and they were shocked by how sexy it was. Hello, did you listen to the album? Rodrigo knows her age, and she is acting like it. She dances over a camera under the stage and is very Joan Jett “Bad Reputation” core. This fits with her rock-chick brand, and she absolutely killed. This concert was not meant for you to bring your 8-year-old to. I am sorry you forgot to vet your kid’s music. Try the Wiggles next time (I took my 15 year old sister).
Rodrigo’s costumes were fun, sparkly and the embodiment of modern rocker chick. She was beautiful. Her set was ever-changing with the moon, of course, and the platform in the middle of the stage. While singing her song “making the bed,” it rose high as she laid on it, and then for her song “Lacy,” it was lower, and her dancers came out from under it. It reminded me of the Nutcracker Ballet, when all of the children come out of the giant lady’s dress. Both experiences were beautiful in their own way.
Something I truly loved about Rodrigo’s performance was how much she spoke to the audience. She even had a segment where she asked if people were here with their friends, their dads or their partners. When she asked for the different attendees, the screen on the stage would show a couple of people having a wonderful time — except during the dad segment, when there was a dad talking to his daughter with a very stern face. I am sure lots of daddy issues were activated during that. Maybe it was an audience plant. Anyway, when Rodrigo asked about the couples, the two people who were shown had just gotten engaged, I think at the concert, but I could be wrong. It was so fun, and Rodrigo was so excited for them and then used their happiness as a segway into “jealousy, jealousy.”
During “jealousy, jealousy,” Rodrigo performed her heart out for like the 600th time that night, and as one of her more upbeat, rock songs, she was truly embodying that image of herself and giving the crowd the opportunity to live it out as well.
Her opener was Chappell Roan, who I have recently become obsessed with. Her 2023 album, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess,” is a new favorite of mine. It is campy, indie, rock, pop and everything else. It is a beautifully constructed album, and I was so excited to see her perform. She was the perfect compliment to Rodrigo’s brand, as she performed in her sparkly one-piece with a cowgirl hat on.
Nashville, Tennessee, is obviously the country music hotspot and has been forever, and Rodrigo, knowing this, brought out a very special guest to perform with her: Sheryl Crow! I think I blacked out for a second when I saw Crow walk out of the wings, and then I stayed in a daze as they sang “If It Makes You Happy.” The artist, the song choice and their voices together, all of it was absolutely perfect, just yet another instance of Rodrigo bringing back angry-rock-chick music.
I have been calling it “angry-rock-chick” music because I do not think Rodrigo can be described in any other way. Even in her more beautiful lyrical songs, you can hear the instrumental styling of someone who truly lives for rock. I also may have been inspired by a TikTok that Rodrigo posted, where she called herself a rock chick.
I think that rock musicians are so rarely women — not that Rodrigo is the first, but I think that with her level of popularity, she kind of is. Rodrigo is breaking records and winning awards for her music, and she is almost introducing rock and roll to a new generation.
I spoke with one of my close friends about this, and something that came up was that all of the rock music we like is jokingly called “dad rock.” I know that I have a playlist that is called “a dad in 2005” that houses all of my Nirvana, Led Zeppelin and AC/DC. I love that music, and by no means did I start listening to rock because of Rodrigo, but I think that will be the case for some of these young girls. This rock music is finally ours instead of our parents’.
The night was coming to a close, and Rodrigo performed “all-american b***h.” If you have heard this song, you know that there is a part where she screams her lungs out. Rodrigo paused right before this part in her song and asked everyone in the audience to think of someone who makes them really angry and then scream with her. When the music started again, she sang, “I scream at night to deal with it like … ,” and then the lights went out, and the arena was filled with loud screams of the angry-rock-chick persuasion.
