Review: Ella Jane in Los Angeles
SINCE RELEASING HER FIRST SONG THE WEEK BEFORE THE WORLD WENT INTO LOCKDOWN - Ella Jane’s career has taken root in the nearly two years since. She’s watched her audience grow, albeit through a phone screen. This past Wednesday in LA was only her second opportunity to play live and connect with her fans in person instead of as usernames. This is an all too familiar reality for artists like Jane who rose up during the pandemic with the help of the internet, especially TikTok.
At The Echo, Sedona took the stage first with their gutsy indie rock songs. Then, washed in a purple glow, Laura Elliot arrived playing singer-songwriter ballads with a full backing band. There’s an intriguing, nearly country twang to her voice, and she got the crowd completely wrapped around her finger. Her song, “Blue,” about being the second choice, left unnoticed by a crush, got sympathetic and supportive cheers from the crowd. Her bubbly energy is infectious and was the perfect primer for Ella Jane.
Jane started her set with one of her most energetic and pop leaning tracks, “Mona Lisa,” which got the crowd jumping right away. Between songs, she mentioned that she’d heard one girl had travelled all the way from Montana to see the show and that she was amazed at how many people came out for her first LA concert.
Most of Jane’s songs are on the quieter side, and she joked after each song that the next one was still going to be sad and it wasn’t quite time to get happy again. During “Sellout,” Jane accompanied herself on her acoustic guitar and a man at the back of the room slowly waved his glow-in-the-dark bracelet in the air in time with the song to show support. Jane also played piano during her set, giving a shout out to her jazz pianist father who was in the audience for getting her started with the instrument.
The energy picked back up again with the arrival of a special guest on stage. The audience was absolutely peppered with Jane’s fellow indie pop artists from Forrest Nolan to Lizzy McAlpine, and her friend, Chloe Moriondo, got on stage to play an epic rendition of “You Belong With Me” by Taylor Swift that had the entire crowd screaming, jumping, and singing their hearts out. Jane was sure to note that this was “ethical Taylor Swift” because this was a cover of Taylor’s Version, which got appreciative cheers from an audience of Swifties.
The second duet of the night came in the encore. Laura Elliot took the stage once again to play a currently untitled song that she’d written with Jane. Jane shared that she had immediately jumped on the chance to contribute to the song after Elliot sent her the first verse via text. The thoughtful duet required an alternate tuning, as many songs that night did, and the two went back and forth about how unprepared they felt to talk on stage and tried out a couple subpar jokes before Jane laughed and said it was a good thing she wasn’t a professional comedian. Still, the crowd stayed with them every step of the way.
She closed the night by playing the first song she ever released, “The City,” before exiting the stage to “Comfort Crowd” by Conan Gray which bled into the spectacularly Gen Z nostalgia of “7 Things” by Miley Cyrus. Fans flocked to the merch table where Jane excitedly met with them and took plenty of photos, soaking in the magic of finally being able to tangibly see her hard work in real life after so long. The show felt like a true celebration of finally being able to step outside our phones and experience the amazing energy of live music together again.
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