It is six o’clock on Friday night and I’ve been here since two o’clock. Sebastian Schub has dazzled with his angelic vocals, Sydney Rose has broken hearts with a cover of Coldplay’s ‘Fix You’ and Finneas has brought out special guest Ashe for what felt like a private performance from their new band The Favours. Still I 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. Holding an acoustic guitar in her arms, she 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 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.Â
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. 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, with Abrams letting us know that ‘Let it Happen’ is her favourite to sing with the crowd. It became clear why immediately, ‘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.
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 present, 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 the crowd as she approached the piano and broke hearts with her newly released ‘Death Wish’; a track that narrates one of her best friends journey through a narcissistic relationship.
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 tune, 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.
Then, to close out the set, the electronic synth beat of ‘Close To You’ poured out. ‘I don’t got a single problem with provocative‘, was belted with passion as the crowd came together one final time. 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.
