Live Review: Gracie Abrams @ The Forum, Melbourne

Tiny Habits have matching red ‘Good Riddance’ Gracie Abrams merch jumpers on and they’re ready to go. It’s the first-time three-piece Boston acoustic group are visiting Australia, and they begin serenading us with a song from their debut EP called Tiny Things.

With only three voices and a guitar, they effortlessly and perfectly harmonise each song together to deliver a beautifully intimate performance that’s calming and wholesome.

The trio shares a song about a street in Boston called Hemenway and some of their favourite re-imagined versions of popular songs by other artists brought to life in a whole new way including Harry Styles’ Matilda and Keane’s Somewhere Only We Know.

The three friends admit they’ve only been a band for a couple of years but in that time, they’ve quickly reached viral success with their uniquely heartwarming style of acoustic folk-pop and they’re continuing to win new fans over here tonight and all around the world.

Taylor Swift singalongs fill the venue between the changeover while we wait for the main act which is an indication of what to expect from fans at this show. Not only have they been waiting for hours lining up to secure their spot in front of the stage, but they’ve got matching ribbons tied in their hair like some kind of cult.

As Gracie Abrams arrives on stage and from the very first song Where Do We Go Now? the crowd becomes hysterical with ear-drum-bursting screams and are so loud you can barely hear Abrams over the top of them singing every single word.

“Welcome to the second-last show of The Good Riddance Tour,” Abrams says as she addresses the audience. It’s also her first time in Australia and she reveals she’s waited to be in our city for so long and has heard the most amazing things about it that have all been proven to her during her stay.

“As you can hear, I sound like a frog,” she laughs. “But that’s okay because these shows to me are kind of like duets the whole time anyway between me and you,” she says to her adoring fans in the room tonight who she says are one of the loudest crowds she’s ever come across.

Abrams notes that she’s particularly emotional because her tour is coming to a close. She’s a fearless performer who wears her heart on her sleeve and shares a spellbinding collection of sad-girl music through brutally honest and self-examining storytelling with a cinematic quality. She commands the stage in every way as she alternates between guitar, piano and pacing around from side to side with her microphone in-hand.

Fans pass gifts to the front of the stage and the show is interrupted numerous times as people shout for help needing water or fainting left right and centre. She graciously stops when her fans need help and then she picks up right where she leaves off like nothing happened.

Abrams reciprocates the love for her audience by constantly waving at fans and plays little pieces of different songs tonight to make it more special, often adding songs that fans shout out and request throughout. Some lesser-known songs she even forgets the words to, but the audience keeps her on track singing along and reminding her of the lyrics she wrote.

“Thank you all for taking good care of me during the show because you’ve been singing so loudly, and it really helps. I’ve been doing everything possible in the world to save my voice to be with you,” she admits.

“I was terrified today because of how I sounded, and we’ve all waited so long to be together, but you have this quality that makes me feel at home and calms my nerves rather than increase them. You all possess some like superhuman quality to make [me] feel that way, especially for someone who has historically been riddled with anxiety,” Abrams explains.

“Thank you for being this community of people that I have grown to rely on and trust with my heart and soul. You feel like old friends and that is not something I anticipated when I started releasing music.”

She reveals that making her debut album Good Riddance she was able to voice her feelings in the studio for the first time and when writing Best she always thought of how one day she’d maybe get to scream the lyrics in a room with other people. She thanks us for being those people tonight as she sings the personal track.

Right Now is usually the last song of her set but her microphone seems to cut out at the end of the song and she feels bad about how it ends so decides to add in one more song (405), which she randomly chooses from a fan-made sign in the front row. She calls on her band to whip up the bonus track, quickly figuring out how to play the unrehearsed song to finish tonight’s show on a high note.