Photo by Jorge Ramos

With the *very likely* release of her first single off her second EP tonight at 11 CST, I decided to finally write about my experience at the Clairo show in Los Angeles last month.

I’ve been a Clairo fan since 2018, and she was the main reason why I went to see Dua Lipa in Dallas; luckily, I was able to see her two times more last year, at Lollapalooza and in Houston as part of her Lazy Days tour, her first tour across the country where all dates were sold out within hours.

This show was announced in late February as part of the Goldenvoice April concert series which mainly feature artists performing at the Coachella festival, which Clairo was a part of. I began my new job back in January, so I did not have any PTO available, but after begging for a schedule change for that week I was able to get off Thursday and Friday and was ready to fly to LA to see Clairo and come back to Austin the day after. Once Clairo posted about this show on her Instagram it was revealed that it would be a benefit show with all ticket and merchandise sales being donated to multiple organizations such as the ACLU, AARDA, and the Transgender Law Center, and to no one’s surprise, this show sold out in under ten minutes.

Day of the show I lined up by noon as I was hoping to get a spot in the barricade. The crowd started to come, and we were let in to the venue by 7 pm. The opening band was Men I Trust, who I was not too familiar with, but enjoyed their chill vibes. One thing to say about the venue is that there is no barricade, so you are standing right in front of the stage with no security guard in front of you, which I thought was pretty cool but later on realized that we were right in front of the bass speakers and it became extremely hard to hear the vocals.

Clairo began her set with her mashup of Get With U/2 Hold U, and proceeded with fan favorites Flaming Hot Cheetos and Drown, her collaboration with Cuco. To that point the setlist was already different to her usual set, and even though her last performance was less than two weeks prior, it seems like she was testing her new show with an audience that consisted of her fans rather than a festival crowd. The first surprise of the night was a cover of Blue Light by Mazzy star, proceeded by her Sis and Bubblegum, both songs from her Soundcloud days that were made available to streaming services back in February. After that, fans were treated to FOUR new songs, which included Bags, a song she first performed in Australia and kept on her set for the Lollapalooza South America festivals. The next three songs were completely brand new and she did not want to tell the crowd their names, but I do remember taking a glimpse at the setlist to her left and was able to read the titles Sinking and Closer to You. Her new stuff sounded far different to the new stuff she had on Diary 001. There were more organic guitar licks, great rhythm sections, more ambient choruses, and more instrumentation rather than simple beats. These new songs are not only shower her growth as an artist, but they are letting her express her feelings with the type of music she has been wanting to make. She has mentioned previously that Diary 001 had a pop sound that she enjoyed but wanted to move on from the “bedroom pop” labeling, and it looks like Diary 002 will exactly do that for her.

The show finished with Pretty Girl, the song that went viral and gave her a big jump into the music industry, and 4EVER, which was the first single off her Diary 001 EP that became an instant fan-favorite. After the show, fans enjoyed it but many were confused as to why the setlist did not include songs such as Better and B.O.M.D. which became staples during her Lazy Days tour, but it seems like she might be done with that era, or maybe she just wanted to give us a treat of 002 rather than a similar set to her last tour. One thing for sure, with dates at some of the major summer festivals such as Governor’s Ball and a tour with Khalid that includes the biggest arenas in the country, it is safe to say that Clairo will gain plenty of fans this year and will have a bigger fanbase once she is ready to record and release her first debut album.

Photo by Jorge Ramos