Chappell Roan, Edinburgh review: 'joyous'
Chappell Roan may be relatively new to playing large-scale shows, but this was a performance worthy of an experienced stadium headliner, writes David Pollock
Chappell Roan, Royal Highland Centre, Edinburgh ★★★★
“Thank you for being here, this is my biggest ever show,” announced Chappell Roan at the first night of two massive Ingliston concerts. The Missourian has released music for nearly a decade, but not until the surprise success of last year’s hit Good Luck, Babe! did the previous year’s album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess really catch fire, unleashing a torrent of hit singles.
She’s making up for lost time though, because this was a gig worthy of an experienced stadium headliner, from the bouncy, thrilling house keyboard stabs of the opening Super Graphic Ultra Modern girl, a hymn to ditching unsatisfying guys and getting with girls instead, to the bittersweet, camp anthemics of closer Pink Pony Club, which had a run of 22 weeks in the UK singles chart earlier this year.
Against a backdrop of gnarled metal walkways and gothic lighting, Roan’s style initially resembled a white-faced, harlequinade take on Queen Padme from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, carrying her through songs like glam banger Femininomenom and Naked in Manhattan’s sleek pop.
The joyous HOT TO GO!, complete with mass dance sequence, was an inevitable highlight, preceding a quick costume change into gleaming ‘80s hot pants, bra top and thigh-length boots for a raw cover of Heart’s Barracuda.
These elaborate styles and fun songs clearly appealed to the large audience contingent in drag fashion, while the many coupled women in the crowd reacted joyfully to country anthem The Giver, a frank affirmation of sex between women. Then a range of first-rate ballads about love and heartbreak – Casual, recent hit The Subway, the gorgeously sad Coffee, California – hit home with everyone.
“Thank you for giving me a space where I can dress up and wear drag makeup and feel free, I've needed this since I was 14,” Roan said before Kaleidoscope, another ballad about acceptance and love, in a heartfelt aside. It’s a rare artist who can hold a field of several thousand people in the palm of her hand, but make it feel like she’s sitting each one down for a private chat.
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