girl in red brings their ‘wandering problems’ to The Truman
girl in red and Holly Humberstone sold TF out of The Truman. // Photo by Steph Castor
You can guess the average age of a flock of concert-goers based on their willingness to stand in line for several hours, braving the season’s first true thunderstorm.
Most of us are too old for that shit now. The line for Tuesday’s girl in red show at The Truman wrapped around the block, offering some stark yet pleasing contrast to the ease of ordering a drink inside. The balcony provided a safe space for those of us with millennial back problems to sip our Quirk tallboys and admire from afar.
Between the resurgence of Catholic skirts as fashion statements, the scent of freshly-Sharpied Xs, the zero-proof drink special, and the enthusiastic push towards the stage barricade—it was clear this would be a show for the kids.
Holly Humberstone at The Truman. // Photo by Steph Castor
Holly Humberstone
United Kingdom-based Holly Humberstone promptly began at 8 p.m. and wooed the crowd with some syrupy after-school-study-session vibes. Her one-woman show commanded the room with multi-instrumental looping and casual navigation of her center stage setup.
Humberstone layered each song with precision and demonstrated a level of mastery that you just can’t see with a full backing band. Reminiscent of driving through a coastal mountain range, several of Humberstone’s tracks gave us that unanimous, “Oh fuck, I actually know (and love) this song,” moment.
Humberstone even established some next-level intimacy in the room with “Deep End,” a stripped down mental health commentary dedicated to her sister. She gracefully transitioned into “London is Lonely,” which politely robed us in a chorus of filtered silk harmonies.
It’s safe to say that Humberstone provided the musical foreplay for an evening of horny teen angst to come. She even strategically mentioned she’d been giving away her secret demo to anyone who DM’d her on Instagram (I’ve yet to receive mine).
girl in red. // Photo by Steph Castor
girl in red
By the time girl in red pranced about the stage, many of us were thinking, “How late can these kids stay up, though?” That might also explain the incredibly efficient changeover, streamlined setlist (no encore this time, folks), and the artful packing into a post-show Uber by 10:30 p.m.
The band’s own Marie Ulven Ringheim was a delightfully unfiltered mess, and we love her for it. The introductory blanket of red light appropriately complimented the band’s moniker as well as Ringheim’s forthright and proud confession that she had started her period in Kansas City.
“Feels like my uterus is going to come out of my ass,” she announced before hammering on her guitar.
While girl in red’s set was top-heavy with energetic and pissed off sad-girl anthems, the highlight was Ringheim’s banter with the audience. “I’ll do a picture of you guys, but not of me. I look like shit,” she emphasized in response to a front-row fan request.
She continued to ramble amid an instrument swap, “I don’t know who I am. Wait, that’s not what I was gonna say… I’m just a wandering fucking problem recently.”
The crowd let out a reverberant laugh followed by a deafening sing-along as the band launched into their 2018 hit “we fell in love in october.” Immediately after, a young fan held up a sign that read:
It’s my birthday, can I have your pick?
To which Ringheim replied, “Yes. Happy birthday.”
girl in red performing “midnight love.” // Photo by Steph Castor
It was apparent that Ringheim was, very understandably, eating this shit up. She even offered The Truman an acoustic snippet of a new song she had started writing just hours before the show and continued to improvise for few lines before sheepishly trailing off.
The riffy intro and familiar refrain of “Serotonin” indicated that the end of the set was nigh, and the band certainly went hard. Almost too hard. Ringheim swung her arms and spun in sync before announcing, “I think my microphone just broke. Oh, yeah—it did break.”
A violet mist filled the venue as sweat steamed up from what would normally be the pit and the lights shifted to a proper “midnight love” mood. The younger fans bounced up and down, pumping their fists in unison as the 21+ club bellied up to the bar for another cocktail. We all whipped our heads in distraction, hoping for a quick pour before joining in.
Despite our self-aging claims, girl in red gave us an exceptionally interactive and exciting performance—one that held our attention for the duration of the show. While there was no encore, the decided closer made it unnecessary.
Ringheim used her platform very appropriately, “Fuck you to the ‘don’t say gay’ bill. Let’s all give a big ‘gay’ on the count of three.” And a big “GAY” we certainly delivered before collectively losing our shit to “i wanna be your girlfriend” and calling it an (early) night.
