Clairo Charms Santa Barbara

On Oct. 7, the Santa Barbara Bowl welcomed singer/songwriter, Clairo, with open arms. Clairo celebrated the release of her junior album titled, “Charm” with a U.S. tour that began on Sept. 8. The tour brought along special guest and opener, Alice Phoebe Lou, who the crowd simply couldn’t get enough of. From the atmosphere, the people, the set, to the woman of the hour herself – the concert was simply perfect. 

Concert openers are always a gamble, they could end up being almost better than the headliner, or they could put the audience to sleep. The crowd fell in love with Alice Phoebe Lou’s music. Lou’s discography is a sweet and charming symphony of songs. Her song “Open my door” started the concert with a light, almost airy atmosphere. Even though a lot of the crowd wasn’t familiar with her music, it was impossible to not sway to her set. With people showing up late to skip the opener, they were missing out on Lou’s performance, one of the most captivating sets anyone could experience from an opener. During Lou’s song, “Glow” the world felt light, like nothing mattered; all you could think about was how the instrumentals and her voice carried through the atmosphere of the venue. Lou ended her set with “Witches,” a true fan favorite.

Alice Phoebe Lou's opening set smoothed right into Clairo's harmoniously. As fans waited patiently for Clairo to come out there was a buzz in the air. People knew they wouldn’t be leaving the concert the same. Clairo opened her set with, “Nomad,” a song that talks about seeking connection within relationships instead of looking into yourself. The song was the perfect pick to open her set with, setting the mood for the concert. 

After Clairo played a few songs from her most recent album, she tuned it back to her debut album, Immunity, with the song, “Softly” where you can really see how much she’s grown as a musician, going from very bedroom-pop songs, to now a more refined, instrumentally intelligent genre. Clairo continues with this theme of playing her past songs with her first ever song, “Flaming Hot Cheetos.” This was almost like a full circle moment for her. She spoke about how she played at UC Santa Barbara for the first time back in 2018 with a 30-minute set, playing her song, “4EVER” twice just to fill up the time slot.   

Throughout the show, Clairo received gifts from the crowd left and right, such as a man in the crowd holding up a poster that said, “You make me want to do a backflip,” which Clairo saw, and immediately requested for security to come and let him up to the stage before her song, “Terrapin.” He ended up backflipping a few times and “interpretive dancing” to the song. Clairo also described how “BeaFurnishings” on TikTok made her a chair, and she put it on stage for the whole show. 

Clairo finished her set with two of her most popular songs, “Sexy to Someone” and “Juna” which left fans feeling content; they were great songs to conclude the evening. Clairo has this stage presence where no matter where or who you are in the crowd – you feel immense comfort by her songs, and the sweetness that goes into the making of her songs. Out of Clairo’s numerous performances, this performance had to have been the most memorable.