Review: girl in red in San Francisco
On the last night of her sold-out tour, girl in red drew her adoring fans to The Regency Ballroom on Tuesday night. Touring with Holly Humberstone, the two performers ended their North American leg with two nights in San Francisco, filling the venue wall to wall. Much of the crowd came dressed in red, echoing Marie Ulven’s moniker and name of her tour, “world in red.” As a performer known for her queer identity, the venue was scattered with pride flags. Fans held miniature LGBTQ+ flags in the crowd, bisexual flags lined the balcony above, and many in the front row had large flags of their own.
It’s clear that girl in red is well-loved by her fans, but it couldn’t be more apparent on her headlining tour. One fan in the crowd made their own sign out of cardboard, which read, “girl in red made me gay– love you!” Throughout the night, fans showered her with gifts: one passed up a bouquet of roses during “hornylovesickness,” another tossed a stuffed animal on stage from the balcony. As an artist who got her start making songs in her bedroom, it’s almost shocking to see her be treated as the major indie-pop star she is today.
Holly Humberstone performed the opening set by herself, handling the guitar, piano, and trackpad all on her own. Hailing from England, not too far from girl in red’s home country of Norway, Humberstone confessed it was her first time performing in San Francisco. The crowd welcomed her warmly, many proving themselves to be fans of hers with “We love you Holly!’s” and recognition of all her songs. Humberstone played an unreleased track, a vibrant and nostalgic song that she “may or may not release.”
The Regency Ballroom threw on Doja Cat’s Planet Her in the minutes leading up to girl in red’s set per Ulven’s request– she plays this album before every show. The first three seconds of “Woman” was enough for the crowd to immediately recognize the song. The venue turned into a dance club as everyone sang each word and danced within their own groups. Up on the balcony, two girls were feeling the music, dancing as if they were the performers that night. The crowd eventually caught sight of them and collectively cheered and hyped them up as “Ain’t Shit” played over them. They simultaneously shouted the bridge to each other– “I'm not gon' key your car, I'll call your fucking mom / You should have paid my rent, go get a fucking job!”
Suddenly, the lights go dim. It’s finally time. The moment it goes dark, the audience’s screams were so deafening it was a surprise the venue’s walls were able to contain them. With Ulven staying backstage for just a few seconds longer, the crowd starts to chant, “girl in red! girl in red! girl in red!” until she finally jumps on stage.
Her stage presence is explosive. Opening with “You Stupid Bitch,” she runs and jumps around the stage, encouraging the audience to do the same– and they do. Not a single person stood still during the opening song. That wasn’t just the energy at the start; the entire night was just as chaotic. During one of girl in red’s most known tracks, “girls,” Ulven can’t contain herself even while she’s playing guitar. She circles to her band members, as if putting a spell on them that makes the others headbang along with her. Once the bridge hits, Ulven holds out her mic to the crowd as they sing in unison, “It's not like I get to choose who I love / Who I love, who I love, who I love.” She takes the guitar strap off her back and throws the pastel blue instrument to the ground. Using the floor monitors as leverage, she leaps into the audience to crowdsurf.
A girl in red show feels like a movie in which Marie Ulven is the director and producer of it all. Whatever she wants, she gets. Ahead of performing “bad idea!” she asks the crowd, “Do you guys like moshing?” to which, according to the volume of their cheers, was an obvious yes. With the driving bass riff, the middle of the crowd quickly swirled into a pit like a hurricane. “This is the kind of level we want to be at, alright?” she told the crowd.
There were moments where both Ulven and the crowd needed a minute to breathe. Leading into “4am,” she addresses this: “Thankfully for all of us, this is a slow one,” she says. “I think we all need a minute, right?” It’s in these moments where an audience member can focus on the beauty of it all. During the quintessential girl in red song, “we fell in love in october,” red lights covered the band as if mirroring the performer’s essence. Yellow stage lights shone like sunlight during “girls,” and she played her guitar as if basking and bathing in it. Much of girl in red’s music addresses emotional topics: intrusive thoughts, loneliness, lovesickness. The juxtaposition between putting these feelings into a song and then hearing a crowd of nearly 2,000 people singing those feelings back at you with joy is a special thing.
As the evening came to a close, Ulven told tales of the previous night at The Regency Ballroom to the crowd.
“Last night, I crowd-surfed all the way to the bar. The bartender was waiting for me with a Bud Light; I ran around, took a sip, then poured it all over my guitarist,” she said. “I wonder what we’re gonna do tonight.”
Her and the audience began spitballing ideas. Ulven offered the wall of death, a form of moshing where the crowd splits in half and runs into each other. She addressed many of the parents in attendance with their kids who may be concerned, but the audience gave their approval anyway. This was a rock show, a concert experience for the books.
girl in red then closed the night with “i wanna be your girlfriend,” her track famous for the chorus, “I don’t wanna be your friend, I wanna kiss your lips.” These are the words she sung when she crawled into the crowd, her filmographer following her every move. Ulven walked through the pit as it split open, her fans filming her and reaching out as if she was the biggest rock star in the world.
At the back of the pit, she sang, “I don’t wanna be your friend, I wanna be your bitch!” and, on the count of three, ran into the center of the pit, everyone pushing and shoving around her. Mosh pit veterans don’t experience the wall of death often, and newcomers unexpectedly experienced their first one thanks to girl in red.
girl in red left everyone in awe as she thanked the crowd and walked off. To end the night, The Regency Ballroom began playing “All-Star” by Smashmouth, a humorous aux choice that left much of the crowd remaining on the floor dancing with their friends. It’s one thing to put on a good performance, if your vocals are good and your band is tight, you can’t go wrong. It’s another task to generate the amount of energy that Ulven did that night and likely did many nights before. Her performance left everyone stunned, yet satisfied, watching their concert videos to relive the moment over and over again.
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