Live Recap: Girl in Red with Holly Humberstone at Metro
ANCHR kicked off the weekend by catching Girl in Red’s second sold out show at Metro with Holly Humberstone.
Walking into the Metro on Friday night, the air was palpable with excitement as devoted fans packed into the venue to see the indie pop songwriter and musician Marie Ulven Ringheim, better known by the moniker Girl in Red. Ringheim hails from Norway, but is currently in the midst of a sold out North American tour because she has no shortage of fans on this side of the world. I’ve been to many concerts where fans are eager to see their favorite performer, but the excited energy of this crowd was something even more intense than an average show, and it left me with an extra pep in my step throughout the evening.
The show kicked off right at 7PM with British singer-songwriter Holly Humberstone, who took the stage for a solo performance. Although Humberstone didn’t have a backing band with her, she managed to breathe depth into her songs by setting up beat loops along with playing the keyboard and guitar throughout the set. Her songs like “Scarlett” and “London is Lonely” showed off her warm and silky vocal tones, and I could hear similarities in Humberstone’s sound to Wet, Vérité, and even a little bit of Ellie Goulding’s more mellower tracks. Other than her unreleased song in the set, called “Sleep Tight,” fans in the front of the crowd joined Humberstone in singing along. Make sure to give Humberstone a follow to see what she’s up to next.
Between sets, the high energy continued to radiate amongst the audience, as everyone sang along to Doja Cat songs until Girl in Red took the stage. Ringheim and her bandmates burst onto the stage and began “You Stupid Bitch,” as flashing strobes accompanied the song’s explosive chorus while fans loudly echoed the lyrics. At the moment, the wild ride was only just beginning— while Ringheim’s style of music can be described as bedroom pop, her stage presence is anything but sleepy. A Girl in Red show combines hooky pop music with rock n’ roll stage antics, and Ringheim remained in motion, constantly bolting around the Metro stage as she performed songs from 2021’s if i could make it go quiet amongst her earlier material. Between songs, Ringheim either riled the audience up by telling them they had to go harder than the first night’s crowd, or she filled them in on behind the scenes bits about the music. After playing “i'll die anyway.,” she mentioned she had actually finished the song in Chicago years ago while on tour with Conan Gray.
I thought the show had been pretty much full speed since the kick off, but after crowd surfing at the end of “Serotonin,” Ringheim told the audience that the “slow part” of the show was officially over and jumped into her popular single “bad idea!” The momentum continued to climb further for the rest of the show. Just before the final song of the evening, a fan in the front row threw a bouquet of flowers to Ringheim, with a note that told her she’d changed the fan’s life. Ringheim joked she thought it said “changed my vibe” at first, which was fitting because the show had filled the venue with nothing but positive vibes. The night closed out with the massively popular “i wanna be your girlfriend,” which ended with Ringheim stage diving into her sea of adoring audience members.
If you missed the sold out spectacle, check out the photo recap below, and see where you can catch Girl in Red next here.
