‘The past few years have been such a dream,” says Addison Rae, as she is met with a chorus of deafening screams. Almost every word is greeted with a similar response, such is the sense of anticipation and fervour around her arrival.
Rae has set foot on a stage only a handful of times – the viral TikTok dancer and social media heavyweight turned pop star is now touring for the first time. Any sense of apprehension as to whether she is up to the task is quickly quashed. The pulsing synth-pop of Fame Is a Gun sets the tone for an evening dominated by irresistible hooks, winking fun and carefully choreographed dance moves that gracefully slink around the songs.
On record, Rae’s music – early Lana Del Rey meets late-period Madonna via Britney – is often too dreamy and floaty to feel like out-and-out club tracks, but when performed live, such textural subtleties are dialled down in favour of a more direct and pounding approach. Tracks such as Summer Forever, though, catch a wonderful middle ground between bass-heavy rhythms and hazy soundscapes.
When Rae invites audience members to scream her part on the remix of Charli xcx’s Von Dutch, the decibel levels can’t be far off popping every lightbulb in the building – the response is ecstatic. Despite being green, Rae is an assured performer on stage. From the raunchy High Fashion – with beats that fizz, crack and pop – to the almost 90s R&B girl group vibes of Headphones On, her voice glides along comfortably and confidently.
Despite her Louisiana roots, Rae leans into her Los Angeles pop star persona with almost comedic levels of valley girl shtick, laying on the audience praise and gratitude thick, while shooting out million dollar bills with her face on it from a confetti cannon. It is deeply fun stuff.
The closing one-two of Times Like These and Diet Pepsi are a potent finale. On a beautiful version of the former, Rae breathily sings: “My life moves faster than me, can’t feel the ground beneath my feet.” But based on the hyperaccelerated speed of her career so far, she is doing a remarkable job of keeping up.
