SHOW REVIEW: Tessa Violet Shows Her Versatility At Baby’s All Right
SHOW REVIEW: Tessa Violet Shows Her Versatility At Baby’s All Right
The quirky pop artist confirms the theory that the high school weirdos are today’s cool girls.
Photos by Rae Lemeshow-Barooshian
For a walking meme queen, Tessa Violet knows how to put on a damn good rock show. The brightly-colored pop princess played Brooklyn venue Baby’s All Right on August 13th in anticipation of her album, coming this fall (release date TBA). The youthful crowd ate up her electric performance, which was mainly comprised of new songs, giving fans a good preview of the upcoming release.
Fresh out of high school, 17-year-old Brooklyn native, Chloe Lilac opened the show with killer vocals and a burst of youthful energy; warming the crowd up with body rolls and eccentric lyricism (“James Dean on a fucking Citi bike” is honestly SUCH a fun line). Prior to Tessa’s set the crowd bopped to meme worthy hits like Smash Mouth’s “All Star” and Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe”, truly setting the humorous tone for the show. The mostly Gen Z audience gave unbridled enthusiasm and audience participation every step of the way.
Then the jumpsuit-clad star took to the stage, opening with her most recent single “I Like (the idea of) You” followed by “Bad Ideas,” kicking off the show with the kind of quirky, high energy pop she’s become known for, before quickly giving the crowd a taste of something new with a upbeat song off her album about dealing with overwhelming feelings of boredom. When not telling jokes in between songs (“What do you call Harry Potter when he bakes? The boy who sieved!”) Violet surprised with her versatility. As an artist known for her upbeat, colorful pop tunes, she displayed both a darker edge, one new song channeling almost Billie Eilish vibes, and a vulnerable acoustic side, dropping her quirky girl persona to discuss the very real mental health issues she’s dealt with in the past. Tessa gave the audience a full display of her growth as an artist throughout the set, playing a few songs from her first EP Halloway (2016), as well as a cover of 21 Pilots “Polarized” in the mix. Violet wrapped up the set with an acoustic medley of a brand new song written just a few days prior, “Bad Ideas”, and Lorde’s “Liability”, Tessa took brought the audience all the way through the lows before lifting them back up again with a new bop “Not Over You,” literally having the crowd crouch down on the ground just to jump up as high as they could for the last chorus, before finishing off with hit single “Crush.” Tessa’s show was overall a celebration of the incredible ability to dance through all the highs and lows that life can throw at us, while always letting the sense of humor that makes her so endearing shine through.
