On March 8, 2014 I attended the Lorde concert at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia. Tonight on September 5, 2014 I attended the Lorde concert at the Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia. It’s quite ironic how the two dates turned out. In a span of time ranging exactly six months, things have changed so much.

In January of 2014, I decided to start Ker’s Corner as a way to express and discuss my love for music. At the time, it was a love that had always been present and was slowly beginning to grow stronger each day. A few months prior I had started my freshman year in college and was beginning to view the world differently. View my life differently. I was at a complete loss about what I wanted from my life, what I wanted to do with it and what would make me happy. Music was the outlet that allowed me to forget everything for just a moment. Tonight in her concert, Lorde discussed that moment when you first submerge underwater in a bath, how it is a moment of immense clarity. When I would listen to music, I would feel that brief moment of clarity, the moment was fleeting yet overwhelmingly comforting. Prior to the Lorde concert in March, I had been to quite a few concerts, but never did I think concerts would play such an important role in my life.

In May, June, July, and August, I saw eight concerts, more concerts than some people see in their entire lives. In September and October I am seeing five more. I realize how truly fortunate I am in being able to attend so many concerts and have such amazing experiences.  It seems a bit crazy to some people, but to me, it all finally seems to make sense. The end of my freshman year of college, around March, seemed to be a turning point in my life. I began to experience a lot of changes in my life and form vastly different opinions and perspectives and thoughts on what I wanted. This past summer I took time to really reflect on my life and discover myself, as they say. A process that really only seems to be resolving itself right about now, which is why it is funny that the second Lorde concert happened to be at this point in time.

I know I’m rambling a lot about my life and not the actual Lorde concert, but to properly convey and express my experience requires this (probably uninteresting to you) backstory so please bear with me.

As I was standing in the audience tonight as Lorde began to play “Ribs” (if you read my first Lorde review you will know that that is my favorite Lorde song, if you did not read it I just told you, so now you know) I felt this sort of peace come over me. In that moment standing there, listening to the music, eyes closed like a loser, I was extraordinarily, exceedingly, exceptionally happy. I don’t know if anything will ever result from my having this website, but in that moment it was almost as if I had an epiphany. I want to experience that moment over and over again for the rest of my life. More importantly, I want to come home and share it with those who weren’t there to experience it themselves. In A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold, there is a section titled “Sky Dance” in which Leopold describes in such beautiful detail the dance of a bird. He compares the bird’s ‘dance’ to a performance set on a stage with proper lighting and the most perfect set design. His main reason in doing this is to describe this vision as best as he can to those who have not seen it. I want to do that. It sounds bizarre, but I associate passages like Leopold’s to music. I see such a strong connection between music and nature, two things that are most magnificent in their purest and simplest forms.

Putting Lorde aside, Ella aside, the qualities and attributes associated with the pop singer aside, and simply thinking of the music alone is still such a marvelous thing . Music, in a sense, is just a grouping of sonic waves; but the beauty is that individual waves coalesce to produce art that surrounds us in the most intricately simple way. It doesn’t make sense, but it doesn’t have to. However, bringing Lorde back into this (thank goodness considering this is supposed to be about her concert) I am completely dumbfounded by the fact that she was criticized so greatly in the early stages of her career, and still to this day. I understand people have different interests, taste, likes and dislikes etc. but to listen to Lorde, who is producing lyrics more profound and fascinating than most people in the music industry today, at the mere age of seventeen is absolutely captivating. She is captivating.

It is nice that I was able to attend two of her concerts in the past year as I am able to look at them side by side and ‘evaluate’ tonight’s concert by comparing it to the prior concert. Tonight’s show in Philly kicked off this leg of her North American tour; a tour that will certainly be outstanding if tonight was any indication. The venue was much bigger this time around. The production much more grandiose.  She spoke for a majority of the concert, unlike last show where she barely said ten words. She is embracing herself and her talent more than ever.

As I drove home from the show (a whole two hours, meh) I listened to Pure Heroine (bet you didn’t see that coming) and (was very focused on the road but) spent a great deal of my drive admiring the sights out the window. It might appear as though I was on a concert high, but for some reason everything appeared more beautiful. The silhouette of the trees lining the road were darker and more pronounced. The hazy cloud, just transparent enough the see the outline of the moon behind it seemed more picturesque. Life seemed- seems- much more lovely.

Thank you Lorde.

(and thank you readers for indulging my most personal, irrelevant, potentially cheesy, and probably boring for you post yet).

Also, it’s currently 2:00 AM and I usually go to sleep at like 10:00, so sorry if this is terribly written. I was just too excited to write about it to wait until the morning.

SETLIST:

Glory and Gore

White Teeth Teens

Tennis Court

Buzzcut Season

No Better

400 Lux

Flashing Lights

Bravado

Biting Down

Heavenly Father

Still Sane

Ribs

Royals

Team

A World Alone