Gracie Abrams
Fortitude Music Hall – Brisbane
16 January 2024
It was like being let in on a secret. I was clearly a fish out of water. Gracie Abrams’ audience is almost entirely teenage or young adult females. What was I doing there? The answer is, quite obviously, that I was a “plus one” for my daughter. With that, you would probably expect that my review would be filled with grudging acceptance – phrases like “she gives her audience what they want” or “she’s got simple pop melodies” with a barely hidden contempt that this is somehow lesser music because of her audience. But you won’t find that here.
The best part of a gig - any gig - is the communal experience. There is nothing better than screaming out your favourite lyrics in a room full of like-minded strangers. From the first note, you couldn’t help but get swept along with the crowd. Everyone knowing all the words and feeling like you were with “your people” is an emotion that is almost impossible to replicate.
Gracie Abrams has grown up with her audience and it shows. She speaks to them, uses the same language as them, looks out for them. It’s a feeling that is repaid by the audience. It was a mutual admiration society.
Her show was tight, but it was also flexible and loose. Slick but not soulless. The special moments were the ones that went off script. One of these was when the audience got her to sing a song called In Between by yelling out a request. This was an unreleased song that somehow they had unearthed (thanks to the internet). She said that she only remembered the second verse and chorus, so that’s what she played.
Then she also played another song she wrote when she was 13. Her mum said that she should record the song properly and the reaction of the Brisbane crowd was, I think, the deciding factor. “I have to record that one now… you guys are the ones that helped me decide”. That’s a direct quote. The audience, of course, loved that!
She also played a new song from her third (yet to be released) album called Cedar. She couldn’t quite remember how that one went. But that was part of the charm. It was a really intimate moment.
She stopped the concert a few times to help audience members who had passed out and handled the whole situation with care and attention. That seems to sum her up for me. Lots of artists say that they love their audience, but you could tell that what she was saying was coming from her heart. From her soul. The same place her songs come from.
All of this might have stopped the momentum for another artist, it could have taken the wind out of their sails. But she handled it all with the grace (sorry) of someone with years of experience. She knew exactly what she needed to do – she turned to her band and said “let’s play Mess It Up”. A fan favourite that she saves for special occasions. It was a masterstroke. She had us back in the palm of her hand. Yes, even me. I was no longer a fish out of water.
