Olivia Rodrigo Debuts 'Pretty Sad' Album Songs at Surprise Brooklyn
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- Olivia Rodrigo held a surprise show at Brooklyn's 1,100-capacity Warsaw on a Thursday, with tickets sold only at the venue box office amid 91°F temperatures that felt like 105°F.
- Rodrigo debuted at least eight songs from her new album 'You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love,' opening with the upper-register challenge 'Drop Dead' and including first-time live performances of 'Less Than,' 'Maggots for Brains,' and the Wet Leg-esque 'My Way.'
- She told the crowd 'The Cure' is 'probably' her favorite track from the album; the set also wove in older hits like 'Drivers License,' 'Good 4 U,' and 'Déjà Vu.'
- Rodrigo's five-piece band has toured extensively this year, playing Primavera Sound in Spain, an 'Austin City Limits' taping, 'Saturday Night Live,' and a surprise Smashing Pumpkins cameo at Lollapalooza the prior weekend.
- The review explicitly flags that Rodrigo made 'not a word about her latest altercation with the president' during the otherwise effervescent, fist-pumping set.
- Rodrigo will headline her own Daisy Chain Fields festival in Southern California at the end of this month before launching the months-long 'Unraveled' tour on September 25.
Why it matters: With most of the new album receiving its first live airing at a 1,100-cap club weeks before the months-long 'Unraveled' tour launches September 25, Rodrigo gets low-risk road-testing before scaling up to arena-scale crowds. The reviewer's pointed observation that she stayed silent on her latest altercation with the president signals a deliberate pivot toward the music during this album cycle.
