With sparks flying and cables burning red, beabadoobee brought her Powerlines Tour to Place Bell on October 8. Her new grunge sound manifested physically that night, through pylons, power lines, and pixie hair. The show was the perfect stage for her reinvention into an edgier version of herself with her new album, Pylon. With her enchanting vocals and unmistakable stage presence, it was a truly unforgettable performance.
Text & Photos by Louis Alson
beabadoobee, born Beatrice Laus, is no stranger to touring, as The Powerlines Tour is her eighth headlining tour. The set reflected this experience, transorting a piece of rural road into Place Bell, complete with a pylon and power lines running through the arena, seemingly a nod to the view from her tour bus on her long trips from city to city.
The set was also a physical reference to Pylon, Laus’ fourth album that she’s promoting on this tour. It features a distinctive new sound for beabadoobee: grungier, edgier, and with a new electric sound uncoiling throughout the album’s fourteen songs, reminiscent of the buzzing of power lines. beabadoobee’s new look highlighted this shift. Effortlessly cool with her dyed pixie-braid hair combo and baggy shorts, she embodied the album’s energy through her styling.
This new era isn’t only a shift in tone and visuals for beabadoobee, though. Through Pylon, she explores feelings of loneliness and disconnection from her loved ones that she felt on the road, touring for extended periods of time over the past few years. However, one recurring motif through all her tour destinations is the pylons spread across the world. Linked through power lines, they become a symbol of connection for Laus with her loved ones, even halfway across the globe.
Before beabadoobee took the stage, Wisp warmed up the crowd. The alt-rock shoegaze artist from San Francisco is accompanying beabadoobee on the North American and British legs of The Powerlines Tour, and acted as the perfect opener. Her set recalled Laus’ early bedroom-pop era, almost like a little sister following in her footsteps, while still bringing her own distinctive voice and emo edge.
beabadoobee then kicked off Pylon’s live rendition with “Sun Has Set,” the album’s lead single that explores reaching a breaking point in a relationship and refusing to look back. It’s the track on the album that arguably contains the most grunge influences, with the most distinctive use of the electric guitar, like power lines buzzing, a fitting start to a show on the tour announcing her new era. She followed up the breakup anthem with “10:36” and “Apple Cider,” two of her older songs on relationships.
After a few tracks from the past two years, beabadoobee brought the audience back in time with “Care,” the lead single from her debut studio album, and to the very beginning of her discography with “Coffee.” The bedroom-pop track, part of her debut EP, was the song that had brought her into the mainstream after it was sampled by Powfu in his 2020 hit “Death Bed (coffee for your head).” Going back to her roots, she swapped her electric guitar for an acoustic one, for a calm, intimate rendition of the track. The whole of Place Bell waved their flashlights along to the relaxed melody, while a blue and orange sunset glow bathed the stage.
Following the “Coffee” throwback, beabadoobee brought the audience back to her present discography by sharing that Pylon “means the whole world to [her],” before performing the title track. She started “Pylon” accompanied only by one acoustic guitar, while the other musicians rested on the side of the road. She seemed to leave the stage in the middle of the song before coming back with the full band and reintroducing electric guitars. The energy kept building until it reached a climax where all the guitarists, beabadoobee included, were completely bent over, pouring their emotions into their instruments. The power lines burned red, as if the cables themselves were carrying the band’s overflowing passion.
Towards the middle of the night, beabadoobee put down her guitar to perform two of her most popular songs. “Glue Song” had the whole arena singing along with her, but for “the perfect pair,” fans started shouting the lyrics back at her, prompting her to flash a smile and dance energetically on stage. Then, she started climbing the pylon on the side of the road, making her way to a platform midway to perform “Powerlines.” It was one of the most visually striking moments of the night, the lighting emphasizing the pylon’s shadow, while beabadoobee was up there with the power lines, which lit up to the beat.
Later, Laus slowly made her way to the side of the road and picked up the handset of the payphone attached to the streetlight on stage left. She started singing “Satellite” into the phone in a soothing tone, her voice a little distorted the way old landlines do. Then, hanging up, lights flickering, she belted, “I’m looking up” and began singing the chorus. After that burst of emotion, the power lines glowed with red spots, remnants of her feelings that had reached across the arena.
beabadoobee finished off the main set with “In Motion”. Instead of the usual white lights, the crowd turned their smartphone screens yellow and covered their flashlights with their index fingers, making the lights turn red, bathing the arena in a sea of red and yellow. With perhaps the most powerful climax of the night, beabadoobee brought the show to an explosive finish: The pylon short-circuited, sending sparks flying across the stage.
But the finale was not the true end of the night. Place Bell filled with the classic “Olé, Olé, Olé” chant, prompting beabadoobee to return to the stage solo with an acoustic guitar for an intimate sendoff. With no backing track or band, just her vocals and her guitar, she truly connected with her fans through “the way things go.” The stripped-back production for the song made it possible to hear the audience singing along clearly and to pick up on the nervous laughter shared between the artist and her audience. “You sound so beautiful,” “you all sound so good,” she remarked cheerfully.
Before the rest of the encore, one of the musicians came back to place cat ears on her head, which made beabadoobee giggle. She thanked her fans for accepting both sides of her music, one side with the explosive Pylon (where she playfully mimed and made sounds of explosions) and her more silly, laid-back side. She proceeded to show the latter with a playful rendition of the unreleased “Lemon to My Lime,” which she described as “silly,” barely containing her laughter through lyrics like “I feel real zesty with you.” She then brought the full band back on stage for the true finale of the night, “Beaches.”
Pylon was born out of the loneliness and disconnection beabadoobee felt on the road. But for one night at Place Bell, the connection couldn’t have been stronger between her and her audience. With sparks flying, she reached the hearts of her fans directly through the power lines that spread across the arena. If The Powerlines Tour comes anywhere near you, plug in.
