Beabadoobee’s stage decor – huge white drapes, an artfully placed stepladder and a dozen cans of paint – heavily implies that the indie rock singer-songwriter is in the middle of a transformation. Opener and sun-blasted recent single California makes the same case: “Wanted to change, it took a big fight,” she sings, leaning out to an eager crowd. “Call it a bluff, you’ll see it real time.”
Beatrice Laus’s star has been rising since 2017, but this summer her Rick Rubin-produced third album This Is How Tomorrow Moves earned her first UK No 1. Now 24, she’s said the record is about the “confusing world of becoming a woman”, while some of those changes she heralds on California include a healthier, long-view approach to touring.
There’s a nonchalance to tonight’s opening run; across songs from all three albums, Laus sings about making out and self-harm with a lightness of touch and sets the room pogoing with a beckoning hand for 10:36, her 2022 single about deep loneliness. She’s still working from the same eclectic references – the fuzz of 90s alt rock, bossa nova, cabaret, shoegaze and retro instrumentation – but this tour hints at all-out rock band potential.
Standout album track One Time has an uneasy bassline and a great guitar shred from bandmate and album co-producer Jacob Bugden, while lead single Beaches has a muscled-up riff and a clear-eyed vision: “I’m sure now, I’m sure!” Laus sings, with visible feeling, even as her breathy, delicate voice is lost in the mix. She’s often drowned out tonight; her vulnerable vocals are so suited to intimacy and texture that it seems tricky to scale them up. But then she finds an extra gear for Together, a self-destructive single from debut Fake It Flowers, and compellingly holds her own.
“I can’t even tell you how nervous I was getting on this stage,” she admits, later. “Thank you for making me feel like I’m enough.” Perhaps her nerves showed in this show’s restraint; it felt measured and careful, without the total conviction she sings of – but Beabadoobee’s pushing for more, in real time, and it’s compelling to watch.
• Beadbadoobee plays O2 City Hall, Newcastle, 13 November, and on UK tour until 21 November, details here
