The ‘GUTS World Tour’ with Olivia Rodrigo landed in her home state of California Friday night with the first of two sold-out shows at the Chase Center in San Francisco, CA. The twenty-one year-old was polished, charismatic and showed how much she’s grown as a live performer. The adoring crowd ranged in age, consisting of many families with young kids along with a huge Gen-Z contingent who’ve resonated with Rodrigo’s lyrical content.
The tour’s opener PinkPantheress had announced a day before that she was canceling all her performances for the rest of the year, citing issues with her “physical health and overall well-being.” The crowd didn’t seem to mind or antsy and were seen milling around the venue and entertaining themselves. Rodrigo would soon appear on-stage to an overwhelming amount of cheers and screams as she belted out “bad idea, right?” from her latest LP, ‘GUTS’. Following up with “ballad of a homeschooled girl ” and “vampire”, the audience sang every word and was locked into every move Rodrigo made, recording it all on their phones.
Accompanied by a live band, backup dancers and a huge screen behind her, the show was in constant motion that made the whole experience fulfilling. The live renditions of her breakout hit “drivers license” and more current “pretty isn’t pretty” were especially emotional for the audience as some were seen tearing up. As many artists have done recently, Rodrigo hopped onto a crescent moon-shaped prop to be elevated above the crowd to sing and wave hello to the middle and upper sections around the arena while singing the ballads “logical” and “enough for you”.
With a few costume changes throughout the set, Rodrigo was stunning and energetic during the entire two hour set. The stage setup had two catwalks that extended from each side of the stage, enabling her to get closer with both sides of the crowd. One side had a glass floor section equipped with cameras that was put to use during songs like “obsessed” where Rodrigo was seen writhing around, one of the more mature elements of the set that might have made some parents wince as their young children watched. It was interesting to see the moment when Rodrigo took a break between songs to acknowledge the crowd as the huge screen behind the stage panned to various audience members. At one point she prompted those with their families, moms and dads to hug and give thanks, which was a fun and touching moment. But then just minutes later, Rodrigo would casually use cuss words to describe her joy and enthusiasm for being on stage, another moment that might have made parents wince. But they should’ve known what they were getting into ahead of time, as such words are in her lyrics such as “all-american bitch”, which Rodrigo closed out the main set with.
Rodrigo played it up to the local crowd, donning a shirt with the words “Bae Area”, when she emerged for the encore and had the crowd cheering just as loud as when the set started. Performing “good 4 u” and “get him back!”, Rodrigo had the audience in the palm of her hand who took home many memories from an thoroughly entertaining show from one of music’s brightest stars.
