Her Osheaga Main Stage closing set began with a heart monitor—a video recording of Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O’Connor (better known as Lorde)—and then her walking out to the side stage and grooving on some bass on a Korg Kaoss pad. We then got a one-minute version of “Royals,” which came out (my god … 13 years ago) on the Pure Heroine album, which launched this unconventional, introspective pop star into the stratosphere.
I immediately clocked the camera movement during Lorde’s set—top-down and cinematic, bouncing between very intimate moments where we are close up on her face and outfit (a black Arc’teryx rain coat and track pants). Lorde was also strapped to a heart monitor, and the visual backdrop would switch to her readings (esoteric and album-thematic vital signs like “Melodrama”, her actual heart rate and rhythms, and ECG readings. The visual backdrop also played different videos of the show—more of the background setting, made up of two flamboyant dancers, a backing band (which was super surprising given much of the new album is very studio-computer made), and a silver water fountain at the left of the stage, which Lorde and the dancers utilized quite a bit during the set.
Lorde ran around every part of the stage in synchronized madness, and the visuals would glitch out into these post-technology, computerized blurs, going on brand with the track “Shapeshifter,” and the suburbia industrial tinge of the newest album.
At one point, she hopped on a rectangular box (that doubles as an LCD screen) and sang the “Shapeshifter” Virgin track, as the box slowly opened and revealed a worm’s-eye view of Lorde singing over pressed plastic glass—like a titan over her prey. For one maximalist moment, during “Man of the Year,” Lorde switched from her activewear fit into a shining black jacket that blasted out red lasers.
And then Lorde fooled all of Montreal into believing that she had brought out Charli xcx for the track “Girl, so confusing,” by saying “Give it up for Charli xcx,” when it was really only a backing track of Charli’s voice. Well played, Lorde.
