by Michael McCarthy
Photo Credit: All photos by Marcus Stevens // IG: https://www.instagram.com/marcus.stv (Note: these photos are from the NY stop of the tour.)
On Tuesday, July 21st I finally saw alt/electro pop goddess Melanie Martinez live, catching her tour’s stop at Boston’s TD Garden. I’d been wanting to see her for years but, for whatever reason, I never had the chance until now. You could say it was a dream come true. Fittingly enough, Hades: The Sacrifice Tour itself felt like stepping into a dream, albeit one born of Melanie’s wonderfully twisted imagination.
The elaborate, colorful stage constantly transformed as she moved from song to song, depicting an underworld filled with castles, cathedrals, hellscapes and other surreal imagery. A massive high-tech LED screen featured “doors” and “windows” through which the members of her live band frequently appeared, making the stage feel alive. Every song seemed to have its own distinct visual identity, ensuring there was always something new to marvel at. The production also featured bursts of live flames — I could actually feel the heat from my seat in the eighth row on the floor — and even what appeared to be a computer exploding at one point. Meanwhile, confetti resembling cherry blossoms rained down over the audience at both the beginning and the end of the show.
Then there was the music, which was obviously the best and most memorable part of the night. The sound was incredible; she sounded as good live as she does on the album and the live musicians sounded fantastic as well. Aside from sounding great, the songs also packed a lot of emotional weight. In a good way. Melanie wasn’t merely singing and dancing on stage – she was performing like a seasoned actress as well, which certainly would not have come as a surprise to those familiar with her very theatrical music videos. To that end, Melanie’s stage presence was remarkable. She constantly held the audience in the palm of her hand as she sang and danced with the many dancers who joined her on stage, the choreography impressive as well.
Melanie performed her entire new album Hades from top to bottom with the songs in the same order that they appear in on the album, kicking off with a vibrant performance of “GARBAGE.” In between songs, pre-recorded spoken word by Melanie played, setting the stage for each song. I won’t try to recap the whole story but you could certainly say that it was a dystopian, almost fantasy like story, complete with elements of sci-fi. “I’ve seen men make promises of undying love and throw facades of knight in shining armor on,” went one part of the story. “There’s always some man at the top of every cult,” the story went before she performed the second track on the album, the fan favorite “IS THIS A CULT?” (Melanie stylizes her song titles in all caps.)
This show was one of the most theatrical concerts I’ve ever been to, the striking visuals always complimenting the songs’ lyrics and the story she told in between songs. I was reminded of the recent Lily Allen Performs West End Girl show that I attended. Like Melanie, Lily Allen is performing her whole new album from top to bottom on her current tour. Often, when artists have four or more albums like both of these women, you usually hear a lot of songs from the first two albums and just a couple from the later albums, fans always wanting to hear the old hits and feel nostalgic more than anything. Thus, I consider it a very brave feat that these two women opted to perform their new albums in full without doing a single other song from their discographies on these tours. I would imagine that a handful of people attending these shows didn’t know that they were only going to hear the artists’ new albums — and perhaps they were a bit frustrated — but at both of these shows the majority of the audience was singing along to every song.
I was especially blown away by the audience singing along at Melanie’s show because her new album Hades was only released this past March and yet it seemed like 90 percent of the people in attendance knew every word to every song already and sang along at the top of their lungs. In fact, the audience was truly part of the show’s soundscape, often sounding louder than the background vocals from the stage. It just goes to show you want a strong relationship Melanie has with her fans that they’re so devoted that they actually listen to her albums in full — and so often that they’ve committed the new album’s lyrics to memory already. And from the opening song onward, virtually nobody stayed seated. Floor seats, balconies — it didn’t seem to matter. Almost everyone stood up all night, which is a rare occurrence at concerts these days.
Haute & Freddy were scheduled to open for Melanie but did not perform because she was held up at customs earlier in the day when returning to the U.S. from Canada. As a result, doors were postponed to 8PM. Melanie went on right around 9:30 and performed for nearly two hours.
I had waited years to finally see Melanie Martinez live, and she exceeded every expectation. Hades: The Sacrifice Tour isn’t simply a concert in support of a new album – it’s an immersive theatrical experience that rewards fans willing to follow Martinez into the remarkable world she has created. By the end of the evening, it was obvious that thousands of people at TD Garden were quite happy to have made that journey.
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