Chappell Roan concluded the six-show U.S. leg of her Visions of Damsels & Other Dangerous Things tour in Pasadena, Calif., on Saturday night (Oct. 11) with a transcendent set that helped cement her status as one of the greatest performers of her generation.
Drawing a star-studded crowd that included SZA, Pedro Pascal, Sarah Paulson, Kesha and Tove Lo, Roan — dressed in a sparkly green two-piece bikini paired with matching Wonder Woman-esque forearm cuffs and knee-high boots — plowed through a set that included the majority of songs from her star-making debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, along with standalone smashes “Good Luck, Babe!” and “The Subway” and a fierce cover of Heart’s “Barracuda.”
Prior to Roan’s emergence on stage, fans were treated to a festival-like atmosphere at the Rose Bowl-adjacent Brookside Park, made up into what might best be described as “Chappellchella.” In addition to a plethora of food booths and merch stations, attendees were spoiled for choice in terms of Instagram-worthy photo opps, which included a giant pink pony and a backdrop pulled from “The Subway” music video, complete with taxi cab and long trail of Chappell-red hair. Guests were also treated to a spirited DJ set from drag star Trixie Mattel (“Thank you to all the straight people who drove us here,” she quipped) and a compellingly eccentric and dance-worthy opening performance from Hemlocke Springs, who showcased a droll sense of humor during her spirited set.
Saturday marked the second of two Los Angeles shows Roan performed on the tour — she also played two dates each in New York and Kansas City — but, as she noted while speaking to the riveted crowd, she almost didn’t make it there. “I wasn’t going to do a U.S. tour until, at the very last minute, I decided to do one,” she said. “And I’m so glad I did.”
You know who else was glad she did? All of the roughly 40,000 people who turned out to see her. Over the course of just a few years, Roan has cultivated a massive and passionate fanbase through the sheer force of her volcanic talent, and all of her gifts were on full display Saturday: sky-scraping vocals, the showmanship of a seasoned pro and a songwriting prowess that makes practically every track a sing-along worthy event.
Below, check out a rundown of five of the best moments from Saturday night’s show, along with the full setlist.
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A Stage Fit for a Queen
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}How to describe the set design? Little Mermaid theme park ride? Mermaidcore fantasia? The Rise of Aquawoman? However you choose to define it, the Disney-like stage set served as a fiting backdrop for the superhero-sized star herself, who arrived onstage in a shimmery gold headdress and matching trident. Never has her “California” lyric about trading “amber clay roads” for “sea foam” felt more appropriate.
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A ‘Barracuda’ With Bite
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}At one of her New York tour stops last month, Roan brought out special guest Nancy Wilson for a cover of one of Heart’s signature hits, “Barracuda,” providing the lucky crowd with a show-stopping moment that demonstrated the pop star’s capacity for rock-goddess theatrics. While there was no Wilson on hand for Roan’s performance of the song on Saturday, she nonetheless tore through the cover with a snarling, hair-whipping energy that left me intrigued at what a full-on rock album from the star might sound like.
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Bringing ‘Queer Joy’
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}Amid her startlingly fast rise to superstardom last year, Roan was uncommonly open about her struggles to adjust to the overwhelming demands of fame. “I miss just walking around being by myself,” Roan said during a podcast interview last July. Around the same time, she told a crowd at a show in North Carolina that she was “having an off day” and admitted it was “really hard to keep up” with her exploding career.
Luckily, it seems Roan has turned a corner. As she said from the stage on Saturday, “Everything made sense this year, why I do this. Last year, I was really questioning, ‘Why am I doing this to myself? I’m so sad…I feel so awkward all the time. And I always felt like, ‘If this is taking so much away from me, what is this for?’ And then I started doing shows again, and it all made sense that it was to literally bring queer people joy…There’s so many things in the world that are so ‘f—k you,’ and then there is this, that I’m like, ‘It’s the only thing that matters is joy anymore to me.’…Protecting this joy is the most important thing.”
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‘Kaleidoscope’ and ‘California’
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}Roan rose to fame on the strength of her bangers. On witty, candy-colored, slightly left-of-center pop hits like “Pink Pony Club,” “Red Wine Supernova” and “Good Luck, Babe!,” she helped bring a sense of fun back to a pop sphere that had trended toward a downbeat earnestness in the earlier part of the decade. But it’s worth putting a spotlight on two ballads that are perhaps lesser-known to the star’s more casual fans — notably Midwest Princess standouts “Kaleidoscope” and “California,” each of which she performed on Saturday. Both offer a compelling showcase for Roan’s vocal range as well as her songwriting abilities, which prove she’s just as capable of piercing our hearts with earnest expressions of vulnerability as she is of making us dance.
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‘Pussy Dena’
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}One of the many pleasures of a Chappell Roan show is the star’s playful banter with fans. “I’m not going to embarrass you,” she said to a random audience-goer between songs early in the evening, before apparently deciding otherwise: “Someone has a sign that says ‘Pussy Dena.’” Yes, they showed it on the Jumbotrons.
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L.A. Night 2 Setlist
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}“Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl”
“Femininomenon”
“After Midnight”
“Naked in Manhattan”
“Guilty Pleasure”
“Casual”
“The Subway”
“HOT TO GO!”
“Barracuda” (Heart cover)
“Picture You”
“Kaleidoscope”
“The Giver”
“Red Wine Supernova”
“Good, Luck, Babe!”
“My Kink Is Karma”
“California”
“Pink Pony Club”