Girl in Red, Barrowland, Glasgow review - rarely has vulnerability been so giddy

Marie Ulven had not even stepped onstage and her fans were in raptures. Such was the level of excitement for her second night in Glasgow that sing-a-longs to Chappel Roan and Sabrina Carpenter were ringing out almost as soon as support act Nieve Ella had departed.

Like Carpenter, Ulven was blessed with the backing of Taylor Swift through a support slot on the Eras tour, but as a live performer there is far less pop sheen and considerably more indie dancefloor sweat to her. From the start she was sprinting about the stage or running on the spot as if limbering up for a park run, and the night’s best songs pulsed with similar liveliness, right from the high-energy kick of opener “Doing It Again Baby” and the lustful pleasure of “Bad Idea”. 

“New Love” barrelled along with some fierce drumming, “dead girl in the pool” sparked a mosh pit of pogoing and “You Stupid Bitch” was prime pop punk, complete with Ulven dashing over to bassist Henrik Bakken for a kiss, which prompted some of the evening’s most hysterical screams.

Ulven’s actual relationships have provided considerable inspiration for her songs, with a confessional honesty that makes it easy to understand why she has inspired a devoted following, particularly among LGBTQ+ youth. When she delved into her autumn doubleheader, of the shuffle and strum powered “October Passed Me By” and the wistful “We Fell In Love In October”, there was a naked vulnerability, both from singer and fans caught up in the sheer emotion of it.

The 25-year-old was open in other ways too. She has spoken about suffering from anxiety and mental health issues, and there was traces of that in her chat, which jumped around from apologising for “making a lot of mistakes” with the night’s setlist to anecdotes about buying a new hat in Glasgow which she was allergic to, and a trip to a local pub.

That then led to another statement, this time that she wasn’t drunk, referring to a viral clip on social media that suggested she’d overindulged at a prior gig. There was then a pause, before it amusingly dawned on Ulven that most of her earlier anecdotes had been centred around drinking. 

 In truth, the only apology should have been regarding a few of her songs that slipped into being cloying, with “I’m Back” bedroom pop that should never have left the house and “Night to Remember” providing a prosaic play by play commentary on the first meeting with her current girlfriend. Heartfelt it may have been, but it was too saccharine.  

At those moments the liveliness from earlier had faded too much. Ulven’s thoughtful ennui works best when accompanied by excitable spur of the moment energy and thankfully a fan requested “I’ll Call You Mine” provided that in spades, as did the closing “I wanna be your girlfriend”, with the singer leading a wall of death among the crowd and spraying water about for a finale both cathartic and giddy.

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