Posted on April 30, 2019
On April 28, the Canadian pop queen, Allie X, made her way to Chicago’s Bottom Lounge. Being a supporting act for ionnalee’s Remember The Future 2019 Tour, Allie X proved herself yet again to be one of the most unique performers in the music industry.
I first discovered Allie X back in 2015 when she helped co-write Troye Sivan’s debut album, Blue Neighbourhood. Blue Neighbourhood impacted my teenage years in a way I would have never expected and made its way onto my top-five-favorite-albums-of-all-time list — mostly due to the lyrical content.
As someone whose biggest dream in life is to write lyrics for artists, I was instantly intrigued by what else Allie had written. I gave her first album, Collxtion I, a listen and fell in love with the lyrics, the sounds, the vocals — and everything else Allie X had to offer — right away, and I have been the biggest fan of her work ever since.
Allie X — Girl of the Year
Going into the night, this marked my third time seeing Allie live, so I already knew what to expect. From the previous shows I have attended by her, I noticed Allie always finds a way to add some sort of theatrical element to her performances. From her hand gestures to her costumes, uniqueness and originality are exuded from the second she steps onto the stage, and this time around she outdid herself yet again.
Given that Allie was an opener on this tour, she only played nine songs. Her full setlist consisted of the following tracks:
1.) Bitch 6.) Focus
2.) Catch 7.) Old Habits Die Hard
3.) Casanova 8.) Good
4.) Paper Love 9.) Girl of the Year
5.) Science
Not only does Allie have a unique stage presence, but sonically she stands out from the rest as well. Her sound could best be described as dark electro-pop, almost like a goth version of Ellie Goulding.
Her vocals are incomparable to any other artist, with a high pitch tone that is airy yet edgy all at once. Her intensely emotive voice mixed with her dynamic beats allows for her to eloquently dramatize the stories that she tells within her music, making her so interesting to listen to.
Allie X — Girl of the Year
Allie did a good job at creating a setlist that allowed for an appropriate mixture of emotional highs and emotional lows for the night.
Starting off the night with two of her most manic and chaotic songs to hear live, Bitch, and Casanova, her fans in the audience (which mostly seemed to be 21 years queer men dripping in glitter and sequence) popped all the way off screaming the lyrics back to her, “Steal my blood and steal my heart / Whatever it takes to get you off / I’m your bitch, you’re my bitch / Boom, boom,” and “Casanova f**ked me over / Left me dying for your love / Casanova, Casanova / Now you’re all I’m thinking of.”
Slowing down the night, Allie transitioned to some of her more tender tracks such as Science, and Focus, but the one that hit me the hardest (and also made me tear up a bit but don’t tell anyone that) was her performance of Good.
Allie started off by explaining, Good, is a song dedicated to her fans who are outcasts and to the people trying to understand their place in the world. In her most delicate and authentic voice, Allie sang, “tell my mother that I miss her / tell my father that I tried / don’t confuse my little sister, let her sleep on it tonight / with the sticks and stones I’m made of / I swear I tried the best I could / I still wanna be a winner / I want to be good.”
Wrapping up her set, Allie finished strong with my personal favorite Allie X song (and overall just one of my favorite songs of all time), Girl of the Year. Girl of the Year — a song about fighting for success while knowing that you’re running out of time, and fighting to be unforgettable while in your prime — a painfully relatable anthem at this point in my life.
While the lyrics hit an emotional spot, “I’ve got ambition, I did the rounds / You got invested now you’re taking me out / I’m looking to you, that’s what you like / I’m just a battery to keep you energized,” the song is highly energetic like a sugar rush, and was the perfect way to go out with a bang.
(If you are a fan of pop music, you have to listen to this song, I cannot stress enough how perfect it is).
Overall Show Performance: 15/10
Final Thoughts:
Allie X and I after her show
As I stated before, being a professional songwriter is the absolute end-game goal of mine. Allie has been one of my major influences (besides Lana Del Rey) and inspiration to keep writing and pursuing my dreams.
After the show, I had the chance to talk with Allie and hear her advice about songwriting. As cheesy and corny as this may sound, Allie, being as big of an influence as she is to me, taking the time to have that conversation with me meant the absolute world.
Songwriting is not something I plan on giving up anytime soon, so big thank you to Allie X for all of the motivation. And who knows, maybe one day I’ll be out in L.A. becoming the next Girl of the Year.
My name is Tara and I put out articles for UIC Radio on whatever day I can. I’m a media communication and professional writing major at the University of Illinois at Chicago. I host a pop music show, PopTara, on UIC Radio every Wednesday from 8:30pm-10:30pm. If you want to keep up with my saucy life you can follow me here:
twitter – @phemebot
music instagram – @lyricsbytara
personal instagram – @tarapheme
facebook – @PopTara
Comments