Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts: World Tour came to Detroit this past weekend at Little Ceasers Arena. Thousands of people from across the state (and country) came to see the show and sing along to some of Olivia’s greatest hits. For someone who hasn’t been to a lot of concerts, I was very interested to see how she would be live. And after seeing it and having a week to reflect I can confidently say that this was the best concert I’ve ever seen.
Starting with the in-line pre-concert experience, Olivia and her team put together a good amount of things to do and look at before the show even started. A merch table was set up outside the venue with a wide variety of tour-exclusive merch (which was really good quality), a lot of cool photo ops, a craft table, and some free giveaways. This did a really good job of building a sense of community before the show. Sure the lines were long, but there were speakers blasting music, and a lot to see. Everyone there had at least one thing in common, they were excited to see one of their favorite musicians play.
Chapelle Roan as the opener, was a great choice on behalf of the tour as she did a really good job of matching the tone and warming people up for Olivia’s performance. As someone who wasn’t familiar with Roan’s work beforehand, I can say I still enjoyed the performance and have listened to one or two of her songs since the performance. Also, Roan had a lot of engagement with the crowd and seemed really confident in her performance which made it all the more enjoyable.
Olivia’s performance overall was amazing. I’ve seen a lot of clips of her live, and maybe it was just the way they were filmed, but it didn’t sound quite right to me. However, as soon as she started her first song, it was clear to me that it must have been an issue with the filming. Olivia sounded just like she did on the album which is a really hard thing to accomplish. Her vocals were strong throughout the entire show and they never seemed to tire out. This is especially impressive when you consider she played nearly her entire discography (Both albums and her song for Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes) omitting only her songs from High School Musical: the Musical: the Series.
In addition, there was a lot of choreography throughout the show, and for someone who hadn’t seen a concert with backup dancers before, I found it very cool. While some of the dances made it a little hard to tell what was happening on stage from a distance, I think they all added something unique to the songs they were a part of. There were even some songs where Olivia participated in the dances (like Love is Embarrassing), which were the best parts of the show.
One last feature that should be pointed out is the stage itself. Olivia’s stage had a large middle base and two runways that branched off on either side. This made it so people on the sides of the arena could get better chances to see her throughout the show, and the performances could have more mobility. This was another feature I had not yet seen in a concert but would like to see more of. Perhaps the coolest thing about Olivia’s stage was the moon. At around the midpoint of the show, Olivia is harnessed to a big light-up moon and performs two songs sitting on it as it circles the arena. In this show, she took a break in the middle and ended up singing Happy Birthday to a young audience member, which was cool for her to do.
Even a week later, I still find myself thinking about how awesome this concert was. While it’s hard to get tickets for her current tour, I would definitely recommend that anyone reading this attempt for her next one. She has a lot of interactions with fans, a good stage presence, and an amazing voice that makes for a pretty great show!
