Following a series of singles and EPs released in her teens, Clairo, (21 year-old Claire Cottrill) has already earned herself a dedicated fanbase. Those fans helped her sell out the majority of her North American and European tours in 2019 as well as two nights in London. Whilst Clairo‘s career is still in it’s early stages, following the release of her critically acclaimed debut album Immunity, everyone in attendance at the O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire knows we are witnessing something special.
Throughout her twenty-song set, her loyal fans sing along to near every word of every track – both old and new. They also ensure that most of the gig is recorded on their phones, likely so they can be the ones to say they saw her before she hit the big time, which is fair enough given the sheer talent on show.
On stage, Clairo doesn’t have too big of a presence: she’s only accompanied by a couple of live band members and at the back of the stage is a screen projecting different videos and graphics. At times these reflect the vibe or lyrics of the songs, such as showing water droplets on a window for some of the more emotional tracks, but at times the footage is seemingly trying to be a bit edgy but ends up distracting, such as when a centipede is shown on screen which triggered the same audibly confused reaction from all those around us.
Clairo didn’t move about too much on stage, at times crouching to her knees or sitting on the floor as she sang which really emphasised the power of her voice, as the young singer filled the sold-out London venue with some of her biggest hits, such as ‘Flaming Hot Cheetos‘ and ‘Bags‘. Some artists often open with a few big hits, then move into some deeper cuts, before ending the set with their biggest smashes. For Clairo, she intermixed the well-known crowdpleasers amongst her slower ballads.
That said, there was a period around two-thirds into the set where it felt as though Clairo lost some of the crowd, during the songs ‘Feel Something‘ and ‘White Flag‘. Her performance was amazing, but at times the ambient noise of chatter in a small venue distracted from the heartfelt tracks Clairo was beautifully singing on stage. I can only image that as she grows as an artist, her staging may improve and maybe her setlist order will be adjusted to hopefully keep all the crowd’s attention and maybe more importantly, perhaps fans will learn to respect both her ballads and bops in future.
Her set drew to a close with her first viral hit ‘Pretty Girl‘, with the original webcam music video recorded in her childhood bedroom playing on screen behind her, before she closed with ‘I Don’t Think I Can Do This Again‘, her upbeat Mura Masa collaboration which allowed the frustrated teenage crowd to exert all their energy they had so poorly contained during slower moments of the 90 minute set.
The Gig Archive 