Carly Rae Jepsen
4th December 2019
The Town Hall, Auckland, New Zealand.
Review by Madeleine Pasley. Photography by Chris Zwaagdyk.
Carly Rae Jepsen first stepped into the spotlight in 2011 when she released ‘Call Me Maybe’, and love it or hate it, the bubblegum pop brain worm made its way into all of our lives. After starring on Canadian Idol, she signed with the label that pushed Justin Bieber’s polarizing personality into the universe, Schoolboy Records. After the commercial success of her second album Kiss, things really changed for Carly in 2015 when she released her third album E.MO.TION. Although not necessarily hitting the highs on the charts, this album ushered in a new fanbase, drawn in by the catchy lyrics, deep bass lines and smooth synths. Somehow in my small world sphere, Carly had made an album that was played at every party, and sung along to with more gusto than Bohemian Rhapsody.
Fast forward to her fourth album – Dedicated – and Carly is performing her first ever New Zealand show, the last of a worldwide tour of seventy. Admittedly, I didn’t quite know what to expect going along to this, as it took me a few listens to soften to Dedicated when I first heard it in early 2019, but since E.MO.TION I have come to love her sound and was excited to have a boogie at the Auckland Town Hall on a Wednesday night. When I arrived, I was happy to see the complete diversity of the crowd. Something about this show brought all sorts of people together, Drag queens, teenyboppers, and most notably a whole lot of mid-twenties cool kids. I wasn’t surprised by the latter however, as Carly Rae has become sort of a “If you know, you know” name in the music world.
Opening the show was Starley, wearing what looked like the coolest holographic duvet in the world. I hadn’t heard of Starley until I saw her name on the bill, and when I listened to her it immediately became clear why she was opening for Carly Rae. Starley writes about her struggles with sexuality, coming out to her family, and lost love – all in the vehicle of a catchy tune. The crowd coming to see the show are (in my honest opinion) mostly queer or queer-friendly, making this one of the gay events of the year you might never have known about. Starley performed her heart out to the still half-empty town hall, with an energy as if she were performing to a sold out stadium, telling stories, and hyping the crowd up as she bounced around in her sneakers.
After a short break, Carly roars out on stage to an adoring audience, dressed in a Spice Girls-meets 80’s disco-outfit – neon yellow and sparkles galore. She opens the set with a series of fast paced, boppy, synth and drum machine heavy songs, stopping to engage the crowd and reach out to fans who have squished themselves right up against the stage barrier. The set really kicks off when Carly plays her third song, ‘Run Away With Me’, with her keyboardist switching instruments to play the saxophone intro, and launching the song full speed into its uplifting chorus. Looking around, I could hardly see a mouth that wasn’t singing along, nor a body that wasn’t bouncing around. Carly Rae spaces out her set with well-placed slower songs, “confessionals” about each song’s background, and a perfectly choreographed mix of awkward Canadian meets pop idol meets sex kitten.
After a theatrical and endearingly goofy throwback to a song off E.MO.TION’s B-sides, ‘The Store’, the band walks off stage and all return in blonde bob wigs – a nod to the music video for ‘Too Much’. For the first time they start to look fully comfortable and like they’re having real fun. One of the highlights of the night was the next song, ‘When I Needed You’, where the audience was so enthusiastically yelling along that Carly stopped singing completely and the room echoed back “Sometimes I wish that I could change, but not for me, for you” – the night truly coming full circle to the nod of queerness and otherness sung about by Starley, and cementing Jepsen’s place as a gay icon.
Closing out the show after a raft of great but not particularly standout songs, Carly returns for the final encore to sing ‘Cut to the Feeling’, which starts out sounding just like another sweet ditty but morphs into a grandiose, almost motivational montage song. As the track reaches its final verse, confetti began to fall from the roof. I would expect nothing less extravagant from this tiny smiley Canadian pop star, the electricity in the air amplified, the whole room dancing. While I’m obviously biased as a fan, this was a great show.
Carly Rae Jepsen isn’t known for having the most powerful voice – but her look and melodies are innovative, fresh, and fun. In a world where so many shows blend into the same sort of sound and feel, this show was infectiously colourful and felt like a much-needed refresher to my tired end of year brain.
Were you there at the Auckland Town Hall for this Pop Princess? Or have you seen Carly Rae Jepsen perform live somewhere else before? Tell us about it in the comments below!
Setlist:
- No Drug Like Me
- Emotion
- Run Away With Me
- Julien
- Happy Not Knowing
- Call Me Maybe
- Now That I Found You
- Gimme Love
- Feels Right
- Fever
- Cry
- Want You In My Room
- Store
- Too Much
- When I Needed You
- I Really Like You
- Everything He Needs
- Boy Problems
- Party For One
- Real Love [encore]
- Lets Get Lost [encore]
- Cut To The Feeling [encore]
If you enjoyed this content, please consider donating towards the running of Ambient Light, covering expenses and allowing us to expand the coverage you love by clicking the red button below (Desktop) or visiting our PressPatron page (Mobile).