Words: Alisha Lawton
Photography: Deanie Chen
Lizzy McAlpine fills out the iconic Manchester Victoria Warehouse for the only Manchester date on her Older Tour!
Even though it was a rainy Sunday, fans still pulled through and made their way to Victoria Warehouse for a highly anticipated show from Lizzy McAlpine and her 6-piece band. The stage is set up almost like the inside of a studio, making it feel homely and as if she could be playing in your living room.
Birds chirping sounded through the venue speakers as her band entered the stage, followed shortly by herself, she started the set with the opening track The Elevator from her newest album Older, the crowd was silent as everyone in the room was appreciating the music, which was a running theme throughout the entire show. Transitioning into the next song, which is also the second song on the album, Come Down Soon where the fans cheered Lizzy along and shouted the lyrics throughout with pure passion.
Lizzy addressed the audience saying ‘welcome’ and also went on to say it was going to be a great time. Lizzy couldn’t believe that there were so many people there to see her! After mentioning that it's ‘wild’ to come across the world and for so many people to be there for her, she mentioned that it had been a while since she had been in the UK and apologized but said ‘I’m here now’ which the audience reacted to in cheers.
Lizzy starts to introduce the next song by talking about how on her previous tours she felt like she had to tour like everyone else did which ‘did not work for her’, she went on to say that when she was thinking about this tour, she knew it needed to be different for her to be able to ‘survive’. The song was All Falls Down which covers stages of her life throughout the different verses, at the start of the second verse she changes the lyrics to match where she is at in the present, the audience screamed along to the lyric stating a 'sold out show' -which this show and a majority of the other shows on this tour have been, All Falls Down seems to be a fan favourite in this venue.
Later into the show, there was a powerful drum solo that transitioned into the first song from one of Lizzy’s other albums; Doomsday. The audience clearly loved this song as they screamed the lyrics the entire time. And just when you thought they couldn’t get louder they did, shouting and screaming the lyrics and I would have married you, if you’d have stuck around.
Every night on Lizzy’s tour so far, she had played an acoustic cover of a Joni Mitchell song. On this night, it was Edith and the KingPin. Even after stating that she had only learnt how to play the song just before her show, she played it beautifully. The crowd was silent the entire time; it was clear that the audience had an appreciation for Lizzy and just wanted to hear her and the guitar fill out the room.
Just after that her pianist, Taylor, and guitarist, Mason, joined her on stage to sing the next song. She went on to share that the three of them wrote Older in twenty minutes after a day of feeling stuck on another project. She mentioned that they had recorded the song in three takes and that is the one that ended up on the album.
Later in the set, she sang a deeply personal song of hers called March, which is about the passing of someone close to her, transitioning into another song alluding to the same subject off her previous project, Chemtrails. This left for an emotional moment between her and the audience which leads them to connect and show that you are not alone in the room.
The show was soon ending but nobody in the room wanted it to anytime soon. Lizzy moved over to the piano to play the final song, Vortex, which is the perfect finish to the show and album.
The crowd was cheering, and Lizzy was leaving them wanting more.
Lizzy entered back on the stage, solo, with nothing but her guitar, and surprised her fans by singing Apple Pie, which is from one of her first projects. As soon as the audience recognised the song, an excitement flooded the room.
Lizzy finished the set with her band playing a new and improved version of her massive hit, Ceilings, you can see that her music has matured, and she has really found herself within her sound and this version of the song shows nothing but growth and surety of who she is right now.
Overall, Lizzy has beautifully transitioned her recorded music into a live space with careful consideration, picking up every piece and placing it down carefully, thinking of every consequence. And everything has paid off. Lizzy and her band played a beautiful show that both fans of hers and deep music fans will appreciate.