How do you describe a Gracie Abrams concert in one word? Bows. There are thousands and thousands of them at the O2 Arena tonight, most of them pale pink, and therefore starkly visible among the floor crowd even from seats high-up. Bows are Abrams fans’ Swiftian friendship bracelets – a clear identifier of standom that might cause a commuter to text a friend and ask: “Do you know why there are so many girls with bows at the station?”
It’s mildly ironic that Abrams’ fans are so clearly delineated given that Abrams’ tour for her second album, last year’s The Secret of Us, rarely feels so distinct. In a live setting, it’s hugely apparent that despite her astronomical success – her single That’s So True spent eight weeks as UK No 1; she supported on much of Taylor Swift’s Eras tour – the 25-year-old hasn’t yet carved out her own niche. Anyone just a few years older than the bulk of the crowd – a group that, judging by the pungent smell in the arena, is around that age where you’re old enough to sweat but not to have the confidence to ask your parents for antiperspirant – will probably identify Abrams’ songs by their reference points.
