Photos and words by Sam Diaz
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better crowd than this one at Lizzy McAlpine’s hometown show at the TLA in Philly.
Having released her first studio album in the midst of the quarantine back in 2020, this was Lizzy’s first headlining tour ever after coming off a tour opening for Dodie back in February of this year. This time around, she performed songs from her latest album Five Seconds Flat (released in April), as well as from her debut album Give Me A Minute.
The entire pre-show playlist was so put together, because everyone knew almost every song like “The Way I Loved You” by Taylor Swift and even some Gracie Abrams to which opener Carol Ades took to Instagram saying how she could hear us singing from backstage just before she went on stage, which I found hilarious.
Not only was it Lizzy’s first headlining tour, but it was also the first ever tour for Carol Ades. I was quite proud to see her up on stage doing it like she’s done this many times before. Carol was such a sweet person and I adore everything about who she is, her personality, her sense of style, her voice, her storytelling ability, just everything. She started off with an amazing song, “I Can’t Wait To Be British” which she said was about how we try finding insane ways to justify being sad. I always feel that the opener’s set feels too short and I felt this even more with Carol’s, she had me longing for much more after she left the stage. She ended her set with one of my favorite songs, “Unlearn Me”, which is a self-reflection of a breakup of hers. She spent the little time she had just to engage as much as she could telling stories about her songs or just asking questions to the crowd. Even she got teary eyed when the crowd was not only screaming the lyrics to her songs but they started to wave around flashlights while she was singing, something I can only imagine she wished would happen.
Lizzy’s set was the ultimate whirlwind for me honestly. She started the set off with “An Ego Thing” and went through her songs, alternating between Give Me A Minute and Five Seconds Flat, while sneaking in 2 called “Emma” and “Come Back Down” (which have yet to be released) that had the crowd totally drawn in and enthralled from start to finish. While “Pancakes for Dinner” definitely had its hardcore fans (someone even showed up fully dressed up in a pancake costume), the song that people definitely screamed the loudest for was “Reckless Driving” (music video below) – due in part to being joined by Ben Kessler on stage, which was completely unexpected as this was the first time this had happened at all on this tour so that was definitely one of the best parts of the night. Lizzy then ended the night with her song “Orange Show Speedway”, which is actually where the album got its title, showing up in the second to last lyric ‘I’m racing headfirst towards something that could kill me in five seconds flat, racing headfirst towards everything that I want back’. And, of course, the fans are always excited to scream it.
The night had honestly flown by so fast, I just couldn’t believe, or process for that matter, that the show had even finished. Lizzy and Carol are two of many artists I would do anything to see all over again if I could. See all of Lizzy’s upcoming tour dates here and keep scrolling below for more photos from the show.
