Alyssa Fields
Audio By Carbonatix
A few dozen people stood wth ample room to swing their arms in Club Dada on Wednesday night, waiting for bedroom-pop artist Grace Ives to take the stage. Ives, who was just announced as an opener for the European leg of Olivia Rodrigo’s world tour, will have no trouble entertaining arena-sized audiences if her show in Dallas was the first mark of what’s to come from her live sets.
Earlier this year, after a three-year hiatus, Ives released her third album, Girlfriend, to rave reviews that compared the confessional 11-track, 36-minute record to Lorde’s Melodrama and Sky Ferreira’s Night Time, My Time, two albums that have been continuously named as the best releases of the 2010s.
Ives began her set with the album’s lead single, “Avalanche,” an upbeat song about abandoning indulgent and self-destructive behaviors that accompanied her alcoholism. With a bubblegum pink mane and an infectious energy, she thrashed across the stage from the first second to the last, as strobe lights bounced around the room, making the sometimes dingy Dada feel closer to a poppers-scented nightclub rather than a go-to spot for long-haired guitarists crushing pedals. Through her set, Ives seldom stood still, and the crowd quickly matched her vivacity and propensity to jump.
Ives’ synth-dependent sound, most prominent on her last album, was even more dramatic when performed live. Added runs and vocal prowess, not as easily detected on her recorded tracks, emerged as unexpected and pleasant proof of her talent.
She ran through most of Girlfriend before playing deeper cuts, and seemed surprisingly taken aback by the crowd’s knowing response. This tour marked her first visit to Texas, playing Austin and Houston before ending her state run in Big D. Ives told the crowd she loved the Lone Star State. We tend to have that effect on people, and we hope it means she’ll be back.
“This makes me feel like I’m doing the right thing,” she said as she looked into the small audience, underestimating the resonance of her music about sobriety, yearning, insecurity and girlhood.
In the middle of her set, Ives announced it was time to play something old, before launching into “Shelly,” a lively song about having a crush on a hot waitress (a universal experience), from her sophomore album, Janky Star. The song relied heavily on Ives’ stage companions, artistic collaborators and best friends (so she said on stage), John DeBold on synth and bass and Mikee Colet on drums.
Her final song (pre-encore) was her most popular song from Janky Star, “Lullaby.” The song has recently re-emerged on social media, sitting at about 14 million listens, giving cool girls everywhere (even the ultimate cool girl, Hunter Schafer, is a fan) an opportunity to say they knew it before it was popular. After spending just a few seconds off-stage, the artist returned to play “Stupid Bitches”, the closing song on Girlfriend and what could be her seminal work.
Though Ives is an artist still growing into her own, she commanded the small room with impressive vocals and an unignorable stage presence that will only grow as she seasons herself on Europe’s biggest stages. As of late, booking a gig as an opener for a massive touring artist has, in many ways, become almost a guaranteed move toward a music eclipse in modern pop music. And Ives’ soon-to-be tourmate Rodrigo, in particular, seems to have an impressive ear for eventual Grammy-nominated openers: Grace Abrams, PinkPantheress and Chappell Roan, to name a few.
So, if you missed Ives in Dallas on Wednesday, let this be your lesson: don’t make the same mistake twice. You may have to pay a little more at a bigger venue, because based on the set we saw, she probably won’t be playing a room that small again.
