Feeling Old At The Indie Show
(Originally published on the KUCR Medium page on October 9, 2019)
One of the weirdest sensations the human being can possess is the phenomena of “being the oldest person at the indie rock show” and it was a phenomenon that was experienced by me, the writer, at the Girl in Red show at Santa Ana’s Observatory on September 28th. The Girl in question, is twenty-year-old Marie Ulven from Oslo Norway, and she has been making
“bedroom pop” based music under the name Girl in Red since 2017. This is her first headlining tour, and she took along with her, sixteen-year-old Isaac Dunbar as her opening act. Now let me be clear, I truly appreciate the importance of artists such as Girl in Red who appeal to a teenaged, romantically confused, angst-ridden audience. Because truly, if I were still fifteen there would be nothing I love more than wearing enormous sweaters, convincing my mom to let me get a septum piercing, and probably listening to Girl in Red. So, for me as a twenty-year-old who likes to think she’s over her teenaged doom, seeing Ulven was fascinating and empowering for my inner fifteen-year-old. After Dunbar’s electrifying, opening performance, and me googling who he was; me and the barrage of other teens, began the concert ritual of airdropping each other memes, taking low-quality snapchats of the stage, and singing the lyrics to Rex Orange County hits and other house music tunes. Ulven and her band came out on stage to The Killers “Mr. Brightside” and the crowd began to chant “Girl in Red” and “gay rights!” over and over again.
And I think that was what the most empowering aspect of that nights show. For that night, the Observatory became a safe space for so many young LGBTQ+ people and especially girls. Although I am only twenty, I never saw or experienced anything resembling that sort of community as a teenager. Ulven’s enthusiasm never wavered over the course of the performance, and she was consistently checking in on the crowd in between songs. Whether it was commenting on handmade signs designed by audience members, or the singing of happy birthday to a fan in the front, Ulven had genuine care and concern for her supporters and made it clear that they were the reason she has been given this platform in the first place.
However, Ulven’s music definitely has room for growth, and her performing with a full band allowed for her to extend the limits her songs have to offer. She was able to transform her minimalist, self-produced tunes, into raucous indie pop jams such as with her latest single “Bad Idea” in which she sprinkled in a couple of successful stage dives. From an audience perspective, Ulven definitely needs to work on her stage presence in between tracks; she admitted that night that “without a set list I would just keep talking and talking” which would not be doubtful. Her tour offers a Meet-and-Greet option as well, which should be a good substitute for constant audience attention, but that was not really the case. On one hand, it is lovely that Ulven values audience and artist interaction, but on the other hand it can ruin the overall flow and cohesion of the show that her audience has paid for. Essentially, Girl in Red was a beautiful display of the newfound pride and community that so many queer teenagers have found in this day in age, and hopefully as Ulven’s audience matures her music matures with them.
