Review: Olivia Rodrigo Leads the Choir, Literally, in San Francisco

I believe in the church of pop music. The congregation of an arena crowd, the ceremony of call and response, the big dumb sing-along of radio-hit scripture. I believe in simple wisdom so perfectly produced that it reaches the spiritual, and I believe in the solace of formula, which is just another word for tradition.

In other words, I believe in Olivia Rodrigo, and in the transcendence of her GUTS tour at the Chase Center in San Francisco on Friday night. And I especially endorse Olivia Rodrigo’s reformist sect within the church of pop music, which preaches that teenage girls deserve redemption too.

A more agnostic reviewer might tell you facts: that for nearly two hours, the “21-year-old phenomenon” Rodrigo “captivated the crowd” with her “energetic stage presence.” I can’t do that, though, because this was not even a concert, really. It was a ritual, led by the power of a three-minute pop song to finally put into words what millions of young girls haven’t found the exact language for.

That much was evident in the arena’s attendees, a sea of teens and pre-teens in lavender and sequin, screaming along at deafening volume to Rodrigo’s opening song, “bad idea right?” This joyful noise somehow grew even louder for “ballad of a homeschooled girl.” Next came “vampire,” which showed Rodrigo’s talent for embodying a delicate song as first-person narrator while simultaneously inviting an ear-piercing 20,000-piece amateur choir into her personal world.

We live in an age where finally, women regularly occupy the majority of the top positions on the Billboard charts. Rodrigo is special, though; it’s almost scary how precise she is in singing about the emotions of adolescence, and isolating small aspects of a relationship to explore them at length.

Case in point: “deja vu,” a gift to any girl who’s watched from afar as her relationship gets copied and pasted. Or “traitor,” a kiss-off waltz performed as Rodrigo’s eight dancers played with shadows and light while she played with the tiny nuances of loyalty and betrayal.

Plus, in Rodrigo’s hands, insecurities have never been so fun. Obsession, jealousy, compulsion, rage, wanting to sleep with your ex-boyfriend — her songs are mini-sermons of validation that say, in essence, “Everyone feels that way sometimes! And it’s great!”

This care for her younger fans, this cool older sister thing, ran throughout Friday’s show. “I’m 21 now, and I feel so happy and loved, and excited for the future,” Rodrigo assured the crowd while introducing “teenage dream.” “You have no idea how many wonderful things are right around the corner.”

She gave fans the acknowledgment of loved ones on the giant screen, showing the BFFs and significant others in the crowd. She reminded those who came with their parents, who probably spent three paychecks on tickets: “Hug them and tell them you love them!”

For two songs, she sailed on a crescent moon above the floor to get as close to the far sections as possible, waving while singing. On stage, her band comprised entirely of women and nonbinary musicians subtly said you can do this too.

And she offered the physical rebirth of letting it all out. Fans sang along to every single word of her songs, very loudly, all night long. During “all-american bitch,” Rodrigo instructed people to think of someone or something that pisses them off the most, and gave them a prolonged moment to scream their guts out about it.

Rodrigo’s done this at every show, as part of her tour’s mostly canned patter. But you know what? As a custom in the church of pop music, I even believe in canned patter: the lines about this being the best night ever, or the crowd being the best crowd ever. Because of course, it worked on me once, too — and, in the adrenaline rush of hearing it from your favorite singer, believing it is the greatest feeling in the world.

But mainly, the night belonged to emotional precision. By the encore of “get him back!,” while sporting a “Bae Area” tank top, Rodrigo brought her young, multicultural congregation to uncontrollable elation simply by singing about their inner lives, accurately.

The crowd chanted along, the confetti shot into the air, and Rodrigo danced with abandon, skipping across the grave of every dumb boy, reassuring the still-screaming throng that their tortured feelings can and will dissipate, and that a better world is possible.

Olivia Rodrigo performs the second of two Bay Area shows on Saturday, Aug. 3, at the Chase Center in San Francisco. Details here.