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Singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams kicks off the first of three sold-out shows of her highly anticipated ‘The Secret of Us Tour’ at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne.
The atmosphere in the arena is electric as the audience catches a glimpse of Gracie Abrams who appears behind the lighting rig at the top of the stage as she starts off with ‘Felt Good About You.’ She moves to the front of the stage with guitar in hand for more tracks off her latest album including ‘Risk’ and ‘Blowing Smoke’ as she shows off her floor-length navy-blue crushed velvet backless dress.
“I’ve missed you so much. We’ve talked about it for the entire year that we’ve been apart. Were any of you at our last show?” She asks the audience of familiar faces. “Thank you for being here. This means everything to me,” Abrams exclaims.
Before anything else happens tonight, I just want to say thank you so much for adopting this album into your lives, specifically Australia has been so generous towards this album, and it has blown my mind in every single way possible. So, to be here, it means a lot more than you’ll ever know,” she says with heartfelt gratitude.
Abrams asks the crowd to join her in a big duet and be loud about our feelings as she continues with ‘Gave You I Gave You I’ on the piano and soon the whole area lights up with phone torches for the emotionally charged song that’s matched with her powerful vocals.
“I hope that tonight you feel all of the light, love and joy that you’ve given me. I hope you feel it all back, because it’s changed my life and I just love you more than anything,” she tells her fans before dedicating ‘Camden’ to us.
“This song felt really sad when I wrote it, and then less sad when you guys took it and made it yours because I felt less alone very immediately. You have that effect on me every single time. So, thank you for that. This is for all of you,” she reveals.
Midway through the show, the lights dim, and Abrams appears in the middle of the arena beside a keyboard next to a bed. “Welcome to my bedroom! This is my dream that you’re all finally in my room,” she says excitedly. She explains that the B-stage is a replica of the room that she grew up in and the room that she wrote all of her songs as a kid in.
“This is where we got to know each other because before I ever put music out for real, I would post songs that I literally had just written on Instagram and SoundCloud. It was really a miracle. You were the miracle because you somehow found my songs and cared about them. And it totally changed my life in every regard, but really in the way that like to feel a community of people is the most powerful thing.” Before Abrams sings, she takes a few pictures of her fans in the audience to capture the moments to remember us by.
The intimate setting of her on-stage bedroom allows fans to feel a deeper connection to her music and personal journey as she shares a selection of some stripped-back tracks including ‘Right Now’, ‘I Knew It, I Know You’, and ‘I Miss You, I’m Sorry.’
Abrams reflects on her growth and connection with audience over the past five years. “So much has happened for all of us between then and now. Reading all of stories about your relationships and your feelings and your experiences in the comments on my posts is very inspiring. I feel like since then, we’ve been growing up together and whether you’ve been around since then, or you found out about this music yesterday. I feel really privileged to be growing up at the same time as all of you,” she shares.
Abrams makes her way back to the main stage for her Taylor Swift collaboration ‘us.’ that’s met with a huge audience reaction and mass-singalong. The crowd chants her name in demand of an encore which she returns for to sing two of her most popular upbeat tracks, ‘That’s So True’ and ‘Close to You’ which has the entire crowd singing along to every single word of the song at the top their lungs and making circle dance formations on the floor area to culminate the big finish.
Words by Michael Prebeg
Photos by Abby Waisler
