Ecstatic fans packed the intimate theater to see 22-year-old native Californian WILLOW rock the house with opener Yves Tumor.
Willow Smith, known by her stage name, WILLOW, is a singer-songwriter and actor from Los Angeles, California. At only 10 years old, she started her music career with the smash hit “Whip My Hair” and signed to Jay-Z’s record label, Roc Nation, the youngest artist signed to it. Since then, she has released five studio albums and one collaborative album. In 2021, she was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time, on the Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list, and the Comeback Artist of the Year by Billboard. She released her fifth studio album, <COPINGMECHANISM>, on October 7th, 2022. It is a mature and thrilling album with a much heavier rock sound than her other music. With just 11 songs, WILLOW takes you on a ride through multiple genres, guttural screams, and frenzied guitar that could be too chaotic but it works incredibly well with her confident voice and theatrical harmonies. The album also features Yves Tumor, who opened the show for WILLOW.
Experimental musician Yves Tumor kicked the night off with an energetic set of nine songs. Fresh off an album release in March, they were excited to play new songs for the thrilled crowd. Their fifth studio album, Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume; (Or Simply, Hot Between Worlds), was critically acclaimed as ambitious, avant-garde art rock with R&B undertones. Despite being the opener, the crowd welcomed Yves Tumor and showed up for their set, jumping and singing the words with them.
After Yves Tumor’s set, fans started chanting for WILLOW once it was almost time for her to come onstage. She started her set with the 2021 pop-punk hit single “t r a n s p a r e n t s o u l,” originally featuring Travis Barker, from her fourth studio album lately I feel EVERYTHING. She followed up with six songs from <COPINGMECHANISM>: “<maybe> it’s my fault,” “Falling Endlessly,” “curious/furious,” “WHY?,” “Split,” and “hover like a GODDESS.”She played guitar off and on throughout the set, looking confident and exuberant. The sea of people jumping and singing with her was taken aback when she started singing “Psycho Killer” by Talking Heads, which was performed acoustically. She gave a shout-out to David Byrne, former Talking Heads lead and current solo artist.
As if it couldn’t get any better, she brought Yves Tumor back out and they performed the live debut of their song “Perfectly Not Close to Me.” They bowed to each other profusely and hugged before Yves Tumor went offstage again. After WILLOW performed “Lipstick” from lately I feel EVERYTHING, she sang “Meet Me at Our Spot” from her collaborative album with fellow musician Tyler Cole, THE ANXIETY. One of her most popular songs, she held the mic to the crowd throughout the song for them to yell the lyrics to her. After a short acoustic version of “Marceline,” she finished the 13-song set with “Wait a Minute!,” both from her debut album ARDIPITHECUS, released in 2015. The song became a sleeper hit in 2019 after going viral on TikTok, boasting over 876 million streams on Spotify.
The night ended with fans leaving the venue excitedly talking about how good she was while also expressing a sadness about it being over.
WILLOWWebsite Facebook Twitter
