Words & Photos by Scott Murry
On Friday night Royale in Boston, MA was sold out with a deeply enthusiastic audience to see beabadoobee. Just a few days into her second tour of the States, the British singer/songwriter with a penchant for everything 90s appeared just as thrilled to be there. Playing largely from her 2020 release Fake It Flowers, the crowd emphatically sang along—finally able to share the songs in a space together. Rounding out the positive vibes were tour mates, Blackstarkids and Christian Leave.
Fellow Dirty Hit Records label mates, Blackstarkids opened the evening on the right pace. With other band gear filling the stage for subsequent sets, the band was relegated to a cramped space at the front of the stage. Yet they used every tiny inch to their full advantage, bubbling with energy for the duration of their set. Deiondre bounced with endless jubilation, adorning bunny ears that flopped with each move. From Royale’s second level, it was uplifting to watch the full dance floor wave their arms in synch with the band.
Christian Leave played next, the Texan-born musician was full of smiles. The biggest energy came from the guitarist who cannot be named, despite plenty of searching through the band’s pages and coverage. Sorry guitarist—but the guy had an arsenal of big strums and guitar swing tactics that boosted the pop songs presence, nonetheless.
As the headliner of the evening, beabadoobee taking the stage showed apparent who fans were most anticipating. Fake It Flowers debuted in the middle of the pandemic, splashing 90s nostalgic pop in a time when added light was needed. The grunged rhythms are full of swooping hooks—a range of soft-spoken bridges and booming, sonic choruses. The push and pull construction of the tracks finds listeners entering Beabadoobee’s rom-com tinged world. This builds a sincerity in the rapport with the audience. Throughout the band’s set, random objects were thrown on stage as gifts and mementos. Each random hair band, note, and piece of ephemera were picked up by a gracious Beabadoobee with a beaming smile and “thank you!”
Singer Bea Kristi’s with fans was very natural, only adding to the familial joy of the evening. At a couple of moments between playing hits such as “Care” and “Back to Mars” she would reach across the stage barrier to gather fan’s phones and make selfies on stage. Other lucky fans got a brief video from the performer’s vantage point. Her playfulness is a perfectly complementary match to her music. The shot of endorphins from the evening was also its own powerful booster shot (until the real one is available, of course). With Boston being in the first week of this tour, try to catch this lineup over the next month if it’s in a city nearby.
