Wandering and Wondering

It is six o’clock on Friday night and we’ve been here since two o’clock. Sebastian Schub has dazzled us with his angelic vocals, Sydney Rose has broken our hearts with a cover of Coldplay’s Fix You, Gigi Perez has transported us to a summer of friends and laughter belting Sailor Song at the top of our lungs and Finneas has treated us to special guest Ashe with what felt like a private performance from their new band The Favours. Still we stood eagerly waiting for the penultimate act of the night, for a brunette bob to walk on stage in a sky blue dress, heart on her sleeve. Gracie Abrams shone in her golden hour set, she held an acoustic guitar in her arms and stood tall as ‘Risk’ began to blast through the speakers. ‘I’m going to bend till I break, you’ll be my favourite mistake‘ rumbled through Hyde Park, Abrams usual lyrical wonders came tumbling out of the crowd like second nature, as if imprinted in fans minds like the English language. From there we moved like a tidal wave into an hour long setlist of hits mostly off Abrams second studio album The Secret of Us.

Abrams took many moments to confess her gratitude to the 65,000 people singing back to her, stating that she recognised many friends and faces in the front couple of rows, a lovely personal touch to make us feel connected. The crowd were privileged with a new tune ‘Crazy Girl’ performed with special guest and Abrams long standing producer Aaron Dessner (The National). Another mini conversation was had between us and Abrams letting us know that ‘Let it Happen’ is her favourite to sing with the crowd. We understood immediately why, ‘I bet all my money that I will fall for you and hand you my life‘ was belted by Abrams with a beaming, beautiful smile across her face as groups of girls began dancing clinging to each other holding hands, singing harmonies and ad libs — a moment that all fans should experience with their dream artist.

Gracie Abrams original fans were then gifted a treat as ‘I Miss You, I’m Sorry’ shortly after ‘I Love you, I’m Sorry’ was played — you can always sense a true fans is close by when a communal sigh can be heard during the opening chord of a rarer track. In true Abrams fashion her eye contact with the crowd was impeccable, as though she truly was memorising the faces around her, attempting to photograph the moment. One thing that stood out when seeing her live on stage was her ability to be in the moment, you could see her visually take a deep breath before every song as if to centre herself before plunging into the next. This was particularly evident after ‘Let it Happen’, calming us as she approached the piano and broke our hearts with her newly released ‘Death Wish’; a track that narrates one of her best friends journey through a narcissistic relationship — I could practically heart the crack of hearts.

Credit @SUBZ3101

This energy was breathed out and yanked right back to explosive as Abrams picked up an electric guitar and introduced ‘Free Now’ — “This is my favourite song to sing with my band” presuming so due to its slightly more rock feel to it. It will be very hard to hear ‘I was brave when I kissed you in LONDON!’ the same again. The crowds obvious surge of energy was felt during the penultimate ‘That’s So True’ — Abrams was drowned out by the perfectly in tuned, sass ridden audience echoing the infamous ‘made it out alive, but I think I lost it / said that I was fine, said it from my coffin / remember how I died when you started walking? that my life that’s my life‘. In that moment nothing seemed to matter but reciting those lyrics as loud and clear as possible.

We all knew what was next…the electronic synth beat that began to signify ‘Close To You’ was beginning and we had reached the end. ‘I don’t got a single problem with provocative‘, there is a permanent ringing in my ears from the level of passion these words were sung with, it was all coming together. Abrams shines with her need to give every part of herself to the stage, never once did a guitar have less than a strum of pure accuracy or a word sung with full potential or a step taken for a reason.

Last Friday night Gracie Abrams ad lib-ed new vocals, tossed in new key changes, belted notes higher than her studio tracks, swapped in and out of acoustic and electric guitar like a marathon and even took a piano for a spin all whilst talking to 65,000 people like the girl next door. My only complaint…it wasn’t five hours longer!

Credit @SUBZ3101