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Poppy at Liberty Hall
Poppy Setlist
Poppy Tour Dates
Feb 20 The Pressroom Phoenix, AZ
Feb 21 The Fonda Theatre Hollywood, CA Mar 12 Manchester Academy 2 Manchester UK Mar 13 Cathouse Glasgow UK Mar 14 O2 Academy Birmingham Birmingham UK Mar 15 Heaven London UK Mar 17 Melkweg Amsterdam, Netherlands Mar 18 Orangery Brussels, Belgium Mar 20 Trabendo Paris, France Mar 21 Zeche Bochum Bochum, Germany Mar 22 Columbia Theater Berlin, Germany Mar 24 Backstage Halle Munich, Germany Mar 25 Santeria Toscana 31 Milano, Italy Mar 26 Flex Vienna, Austria Mar 27 Plaza Zürich, Switzerland Mar 29 Razzmatazz Barcelona, Spain Mar 30 Sala Caracol Madrid, Spain Jun 14 Punchestown Racecourse Naas, Ireland Jul 27 Moda Center Portland, OR Jul 28 WaMu Theater Seattle, WA Jul 30 Bill Graham Civic Auditorium San Francisco, CA Aug 1 Pearl Theater Las Vegas, NV Aug 2 Greek Theatre Los Angeles, CA Aug 4 Comerica Theatre Phoenix, AZ Aug 5 Isleta Amphitheater Albuquerque, NM Aug 7 Providence Medical Center Amphitheater Bonner Springs, KS Aug 8 The Rave / Eagles Club Milwaukee, WI Aug 9 The Armory Minneapolis, MN Aug 11 Huntington Bank Pavilion Chicago, IL Aug 12 Michigan Lottery Amphitheatre Sterling Heights, MI Aug 14 Agganis Arena Boston, MA Aug 15 Place Bell Laval, Canada Aug 17 RBC Echo Beach Toronto, Canada Aug 19 Pier 17 New York, NY Aug 20 Stone Pony Asbury Park, NJ Aug 22 The Met Philadelphia, PA Aug 23 The Anthem Washington, DC Aug 24 Harbor Yard Amphitheater Bridgeport, CT Aug 26 Petersen Events Center Pittsburgh, PA Aug 27 White River State Park Indianapolis, IN Aug 29 Cadence Bank Amphitheatre Atlanta, GA Aug 30 Municipal Auditorium Nashville, TN Sep 1 AT&T Center San Antonio, TX Sep 2 White Oak Music Hall Houston, TX Sep 3 Irving Music Factory Irving, TX Sep 5 Pepsi Center Denver, CO Read More
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Poppy is an alien. I disagree. Poppy is aYouTube AI creation. I disagree. Poppy is just a made-up ASMR internet meme. I disagree. Poppy is a religious cult leader. I disagree. Poppy is nothing, and Poppy is everything. I…
Fresh from a high profile WWE televised appearance, internet sensation Poppy landed in downtown Lawrence for a raucous performance in front of many of her faithful devotees at a crowded Liberty Hall.
Liberty Hall is a staple in downtown Lawrence, dating in history from the 1850’s, also housing a coffee shop and video rental shop (yep, they still exist) in addition to its 1100+ capacity theater space, with a famous brewery right next door. With a general admission floor and reserved balcony, the sound system is crisp and clear with good stage views from almost any vantage point.
Opening the night was Vowws, a Los Angeles-based post-punk duo playing self-described “Australian death pop” who we last saw in 2017. Their newest full-length is 2018’s Under the World (on Anti-Language Records) and the band’s forty-minute set began with a few hiccups (some feedback, and the overhead stage lights all on and not able to be turned off) that took the eventually distracted members Matt and Rizz out of their comfort zone, even forcing keyboard/vocalist Rizz to lay on the floor at one point, to hide from the light. “I’m dying up here”, she remarked to which Matt added “Have you ever seen a concert in a convenience store before?”
Regardless, they professionally carried on and eventually all the issues were resolved, but the mostly younger goth crowd was too taken in by the music to really be bothered by anything ancillary. The duo’s boy/girl vocals juxtapose like a beam of light amongst their throbbing industrial electro dark beats and songs that build like a sonic plague enveloping the wasteland and their sound is recommended to any fans of Vowws’ former label, Cleopatra Records.
With a male backing band dressed casually all in white, a row of vertical pink neon tubes separating the rhythm section to the back, and a tall mirrored, lighted box framing the petite artist with braided ponytail in a one-shouldered dark ruffled dress, Poppy took to the stage to the opening air raid sirens from the first single from her new record, ‘Concrete’ to begin her sixty-minute headlining set.
The tour is called I Disagree, in support of her third full-length of the same name which was released just last month (on Sumerian Records) and which marked the last creative collaboration between the artist and her sort-of Svengali, Titanic Sinclair.
Devout fans (aka Poppy Seeds) ranged from adult women in goth pixie dresses, teen girls with adult chaperones, metalheads, gender fluids, and those simply curious to see and hear what the genre-metamorphosizing artist would show us. After some earlier, minimalist, pop-leaning (and sometimes head-scratching) efforts, her latest sound is an ear-opening blend of sugary JandK-pop innocent pixie vocals against thrash and hard rock riffs (similar to the kawaii metal of Babymetal and Ladybaby).
“Hello, Lawrence” she cooed before the delicate beginnings of ‘Scary Mask’, an on-record collaboration with fellow California hard rock band Fever 333, sounding more ferocious live as Poppy and the crowd shouted the spelling of the song’s title back at each other. “Everything will be okay” a pre-programmed voice reassured us before the industrial stompings of 2018’s ‘X’, one of only a couple tracks that were not from the newest record, which was played in its entirety.
“If you know this one, please sing with me” she sweetly implored over the melodic electro throbs of ‘Am I a Girl?’, a song one could imagine Gwen Stefani with Meshuggah covering. ‘You Shouldn’t be Anything Like Me’ she sang, but it was a moot point, with so many girls in the crowd already dressing like her and responding to the music like they were.
The lone cover of the night, was that of Russian duo t.A.T.u and their 2002 radio hit, ‘All The Things She Said’, an unexpected but entirely appropriate choice and she did the song justice with a high-volume faithful version.
The tender ‘Sick of the Sun’ had fans’ arms swaying back and forth and the main set suitably ended with the new album’s final track ‘Don’t Go Outside’, which reprises lyrics from its beginning song, ‘Concrete’ and again reassures everyone that “everything will be okay”.
No sooner did Poppy and the band exit the stage when the crowd began chanting her name, refusing to stop until their encore request was fulfilled. The lyrics of ‘Bite Your Teeth’ are very positive and life-affirming, about not giving up and to keep trying, set against a blackened doom guitar riff. The set-ending ‘I Disagree’ showed Poppy embracing the Japanese kawaii metal sound, singing first in Japanese, then with an emphatic exclamation that “We'll be safe and sound when it all burns down” as the crowd roared in approval.
Exhilarating to see live in concert (and fans will get another chance this summer as she again tours with Deftones), the always-unpredictable Poppy reminded us several times during the show that “everything will be okay”.
I disagree. For a still-evolving persona, multi-media artist, and online celebrity, everything looks much more than okay, it looks positively brilliant.
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(Photography Notes- due to the venue’s lack of a dedicated photo pit, pro photography was not granted for this show, with previous live images inserted, courtesy of Poppy’s official Facebook page. Low resolution Vowws photos were taken with cellphone.)
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Vowws |
Vowws |
Vowws |
Poppy Setlist |
Poppy at Liberty Hall, Lawrence, KS (17 Feb 2020) photo courtesy of Poppy’s Facebook |
