The entire mainroom at First Avenue turned red Monday night when singer-songwriter girl in red played to a sold out crowd. Selling out First Avenue the first time you come to town, especially for girl in red, otherwise known as 23-year-old Marie Ulven. Her make it go quiet tour includes some of her early songs released back in 2018 and is named after her debut album if i could make it go quiet, which was released in 2021. Having heard about girl in red while studying abroad in Norway when she began releasing music, my excitement could hardly contain itself when I arrived at the venue.
Holly Humberstone, a British indie pop artist who traveled as far as Marie and was greeted with a crowd that was passionate about her music. Many people in the crowd sang along and screamed “I love you ”throughout the set. Humberstone’s music dives into her personal life and how she has dealt with the changes life has had in store. Seeing the crowd so excited to hear the opening act made me equally as excited. After finishing this tour, she is headed on the road to support Olivia Rodrigo, which is no doubt going to further expand her listeners and fans. Hopefully, Minneapolis will see Holly again soon, it’s no doubt she would draw huge crowds for a tour of her own.
About 3/4ths of the way through the show, Marie asked for someone to grab her phone so she could read an instagram message. She found the writer of the message, a fan in the crowd a few rows deep. The fan had deleted the message but Marie told the crowd they had written about their girlfriend, and the connection they had to a song Ulven released alone in 2019 called “watch you sleep.” While she doesn’t normally play this song live, and not on this tour, Marie blessed the entire mainroom with a few bars of the song. Also being one of my favorite songs, I have to thank the fan that messaged her – and without really trying, made this happen. It makes a show much more memorable when an artist does something specific for a city or crowd member and that will be a part of so many memories now.
Ending the show on a high note, Marie created a circle in the center of the crowd and made her way through to dance and sing “i wanna be your girlfriend” together. The energy never stopped throughout the entire show. Even in the last few moments Marie crowd surfed from the soundboard back to the stage to take one last bow. After waiting four years to see girl in red live, I was not at all disappointed and hope she makes her way back here asap!
