Nessa Barrett, Glasgow review: 'dainty burlesque'

Good times for touring social media pop stars and their teenage female fans. Last week, Youtuber Tate McRae sold out the Hydro with her slick to the point of mechanical Miss Possessive show and now New Jersey TikTok personality Nessa Barrett graces Glasgow with two dates on her Aftercare world tour.

Barrett’s setlist was peppered with song titles such as S.L.U.T., P*rnstar and Babydoll but her vibe was more dainty burlesque than commanding dominatrix. Barrett herself may present as a slip of a girl but a number of her songs came packaged in thundering electro rock with a gothic edge, from the rapturous Heartbeat to the funk bass rumble of Disco.

The influence of Lana Del Rey was so all-pervasive throughout the second of her shows – on breathy fatalistic ballads Russian Roulette and Keep Your Eyes On Me to the retro Americana imagery of Heartbreak in the Hamptons and the whispery mantra Mustang Baby – as to invite negative comparison. At this stage in her career, Barrett appeared to be feeling her way to a derivative aesthetic, while Del Rey arrived fully formed with originality.

However, Barrett’s songs clearly resonated with her target audience – 2000 backing vocalists on every track testified to her ability to bottle the melodrama of teenage life, whether running with the damaged love metaphor of Edward Scissorhands, delivering the cool kiss-off of Pins and Needles, inviting the crowd to exorcise the thought of “someone who's hurt you and continues to hurt you” on Given Enough, capturing the intensity of any positive relationship on the pretty pop of Die First or weaponising her response to passive-aggressive body shaming by adding a turbo-charged dance rhythm to Dying on the Inside.

Were she to lean more into the energy coming from her band, Barrett could develop from a timid performer into a convincing saleswoman.

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