Chappell Roan: Keep on Dancing

---

Kalamazoo State Theatre; Kalamazoo, MI, USA - June 1, 2024

I have seen the face of God, and her name is Chappell Roan. Inside the State Theatre in Kalamazoo, Michigan, during the opening song "Femininomenon," Roan gripped the 1,600 in attendance and sent them into a hysteria, which was louder and more intense than any arena show ten times the size. Chappell Roan is an artist who detonates everything you ever thought about live music and its power as she reset and rewired my brain in ways I never imagined with a concert so electrifying and unifying it will make an atheist believe in religion. The fifteen-song set was pure euphoria highlighting songs from her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, with every song unfolding like a hug from a long-lost friend whose mere presence makes things better. I've seen over two-thousand different artists perform in my lifetime and Roan's performance in Kalamazoo ranks in my top twenty-five with the energy inside the theatre so palpable I wish I could have bottled it.

The entire show was an unrelenting experience with the "Naked in Manhattan" and "Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl" amping up the crowd with their sing-a-longs with the latter rippling the foundation of the theatre. She followed this with a pair of ballads, a standalone 2020 single, "Love Me Anyway" and the pensive and yearning "Picture You". Later in the show she would perform the love ballads "Coffee' and "Kaleidoscope," both songs navigating the complexity of young love where the sight of one another is too tempting to fate. The sold-out audience didn't just sing these songs in tandem with Roan, but they purged their despair along with her. I could feel my own heart pump the isolation and loneliness of my youth through my veins, which is a testament to how commanding she is as a performer, she sells these songs like her life depends on it.

Roan's identity is indisputable, and her debut album is a self-assured pop masterwork. In concert, the songs ascend to even higher heights with "My Kink is Karma," "Red Wine Supernova" and "California" weaving the crowd into a delicate fury. Despite the pop sheen of her music, make no mistake, Chappell Roan in concert rocks hard. Credit her band who elevates the material and takes it into the stratosphere with their muscular takes on her songs. The rhythm section of bassist Valeria Falcon and drummer Lucy Ritter make "Hot To Go" flourish with the backbeat driving the audience while guitarist Eliza Petrosyan adds spellbinding nuances like the wailing guitar at the start of "Femininomenon" and the arena rock six-string theatrics of "Pink Pony Club" that close the show. Chappell Roan may have crafted this music, but much like Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, her band elevates every song making the show a full-on rock show.

While the twenty-six-year-old singer-songwriter appeared onstage fully formed and realized, her success was not overnight. She started releasing singles in 2017 and a supporting slot on Olivia Rodrigo's arena tour heightened everyone's awareness and with the release of the single "Good Luck, Babe!" she has begun to rise to new heights. She has a distinct sense of self and identity, which is precisely why she is striking such a chord currently. She may arrive onstage in make-up and different outfits, a look influenced by drag queens, but the artist known as Chappell Roan is painting pictures of romance gone wrong, unattainable love and coming to terms with your sexuality. Her lyrical specificity, which embraces lesbian romance, is an essential element of her artistry. The struggles of same-sex love often isn't given the same space as hetero love, and "Babe!" is specifically about two women in love with one being closeted and not willing to admit to the relationship. She makes the mistake of marrying a man for comfort rather than love. Despite the breezy synth that highlights the song, the longing and anguish is accentuated by a soaring vocal by Roan that makes you feel the heartache in your bones. The way Chappell Roan tackles every song with a powerful first-person experience is why she has emerged as not just a blooming artist, but as an authentic voice because she's a woman who loves other women and does not shy away from this in her songs. The force of "Casual" in concert, with the audience zealously singing along to every word, is not something anyone will forget anytime soon as its sensuality washed over the audience.

As hetero Gen X man, I am not even sure I belonged inside the theatre, but the power with which these songs were performed was one of the greatest concert experiences of my life. Chappell Roan concerts are their own world and the communion she shares with her band and the fans is a rare thing. My entire life story can be told through the music I have loved and found solace in; Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, U2, Prince, David Bowie, Indigo Girls, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and dozens of others which now include Chappell Roan. Her stories penetrated deep and connected in a way I have not seen in years with any artist. The 1,600 in attendance, most of them LGBTQ +, will carry that show with them forever. On bad days it's going to be the thing they think about and smile.

Chappell Roan and her music are a compass for those who feel lost in the wilderness. As she performed the show closer, "Pink Pony Club," I watched every person in the theatre shed tears of joy and sing at their lungs out because they found an artist they can see themselves in. Being seen is something that we all yearn for, and the search is never ending and when we encounter doors that are closed, art can save us. Being in a place where there is no judgement and everyone is allowed to be themselves, while singing, dancing, and purging demons, that's as good as life can get. "Pink Pony Club" emerged at the beginning of the pandemic which Roan wrote about her experience at a gay bar in Los Angeles called The Abbey. The performance in Kalamazoo found her singing her heart out and when the crowd sang along to "Girl, what have you done!," they brought themselves into her story becoming the fifth band member elevating Chappell Roan's music into another realm. We all wander through life looking for a place to call home but inside the theater on this night...this was our home. Surrounded by my wife, daughter and one of my best music friends, I was awash with the audience taking in the joy of Chappel Roan's music.

We spend so much of our lives denying who we are or burying our dreams far down, that when we see someone manifest their own, we stand there in not just awe, but admiration of them. Equally important is being able to not lose sight of who you are as you age, because life will come at like with a sledgehammer and when it does, we need to make sure we don't lose who we are in the process. That's what "Pink Pony Club" is about, finding a place to call home and cherishing it. The timetable for this path to bliss will be different for all of us, but as we search for our own versions of the pink pony club, it is imperative we all keep on dancing until we find it.

Anthony Kuzminski is a Chicago based writer and Special Features Editor for the antiMUSIC Network. His daily writings can be read at The Screen Door. He has seen over 1,000 concerts in his life and has been writing about music for more than twenty years. He can be contacted at thescreendoor AT Gmail DOT com and can be followed on Twitter

Share this article

---