Review: In Orlando, Olivia Rodrigo gets gutsy during dreamy, sold-out Florida debut

While propped behind a black grand piano at Orlando’s Kia Center on Tuesday night, Olivia Rodrigo introduced “Teenage Dream”—a track about how getting older and being seen as perpetually young equally suck—with some sweet life advice for the adolescents in the room.

“I just thought that growing up was the scariest, worst thing in the whole world,” she admitted to her first-ever Florida crowd, consisting of fans of all ages and genders rocking sequins, friendship bracelets, and purple cowboy hats with fringe.

Despite these feelings, Rodrigo, who just turned 21 two weeks ago, was concerned about her youth taking on as major a part in her story as it does. No shit, she has her whole life ahead of her, Sherlock. She gets it already. If there were a dollar for every time she heard those words, she could probably retire comfortably right now.

But Liv being Liv, she shouted out her fellow Pisces siblings (“I can feel your power,” she quipped) and quickly reassured the room that growing up isn’t so bad after all. “I think you just kind of get to know yourself more and more every year, and that’s kinda beautiful, so cheers to that,” she added.

Her latest album Guts (stylized “GUTS”) is basically Ms. “Driver’s License” being straightforward about breakups, anxiety, and coming to grips with her new fame as a musician. She is by no means a traditional poet (but hey, it’s still early; look how long it took Taylor Swift to make folklore), but currently, in terms of her lyrics, there isn’t much of anyone that Gen-Z—and even some millennials—can fully relate to more.
An hour before Rodrigo hit the stage, up-and-coming singer-songwriter Chappell Roan and her three-piece band played a 45-minute set centered around girl power (“Femininomenon”), karma biting toxic people in the ass (“Karma Is My Kink”), and even her no-regrets attitude about moving from the South to California (“Pink Pony Club”). And despite her outfit breaking during “After Midnight,” causing her to grab a tour sweater to finish her set in, Roan even managed to teach the crowd a letter-forming dance (ala “YMCA”) for “Hot To Go, which surely made everyone in the room (many of which knew every word to every one of Roan’s songs) consider grabbing a copy of her debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess at the merch table.

In short, considering how well-received the queer icon’s set was, don’t be surprised if popular demand causes her sold-out set at St. Pete’s Jannus Live later this year to be moved to a larger space.

At 8:25 p.m., Rodrigo rose from centerstage—clad in a silver miniskirt, fishnet stockings, and black Doc Martens—and kicked off her 98-minute set with a duo of parallel opposites. “Bad Idea Right?” saw her reluctantly reconnect with an ex-boyfriend, and “Ballad Of A Homeschooled Girl” caused Rodrigo (who actually was homeschooled from late middle school until she graduated in 2021) to lament being out of touch with inside jokes, relationships, and social skills in general for a time.

After her smash hit “Vampire” was given an early spotlight (and saw the crowd crush the backing vocals in the second verse), the devastating “Traitor” introduced an octet of dancers slumping and pretending to rip out hair. They’d keep us occupied with further choreo while Rodrigo headed underneath the stage post-song. Moments later, a heap of smoke made the stage look like clouds, and along with a black grand piano, she reemerged and recalled crying while driving through the suburbs on “Driver’s License.”

Soon after, it became Wonka hour for the dance troupe, which waved around colorful lollipops during “Pretty Isn’t Pretty,” as Rodrigo flashed backward L’s on her forehead while looking back on giving too much time and energy to a relationship on “Love Is Embarrassing.”
After laying down, tossing, and turning on a centerstage platform during “Making The Bed,” stars and an oversized crescent moon materialized from the ceiling. Rodrigo hopped on the latter for a flight across the entire room’s rafters, waving and squealing hello to fans in between her pain of being gaslit by an ex on “Logical,” and on “Enough For You,” where she describes how she wasn’t loved for who she was in one relationship.

During an acoustic set with guitarist Daisy Spencer, Rodrigo told a story about coming up with the basis of “Happier” while on set for “High School Musical: The Musical: The Series,” and having to lie to her director about having to go to the bathroom, when in actuality, she had to record the line on her phone before it could be forgotten.

Once the crowd overpowered Rodrigo’s voice on the bridge to an acoustic “Favorite Crime” and Billy Joel was shouted out on “Deja Vu,” she held back tears while completely stationary during “The Grudge,” after which she would quietly step offstage.

Everybody was nice and somber when suddenly, Rodrigo came back out in red for an electrifying “Brutal” (which has a guitar lick slightly reminiscent of Elvis Costello’s “Pump It Up"), and was even handed a purple guitar for the last few bars. But it was mostly for show, and would no longer be on hand by the time “Obsessed”—a hidden vinyl-only Guts track—and “All-American Bitch” were ripped out as her main set closers.

Before her encore (“Good 4 U, Get Him Back!”), Rodrigo asked the room to think of something personal that grinds the hell out of their gears, and then scream as loud and long as they need to about it. You know, a toxic ex-partner, a stupid write-up at work, a mentally abusive boss, whatever their hearts desired.

What happened next made even the firmest of ear protection obsolete. But hey, it’s part of growing up.

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