Olivia kicks us off with a video of her walking a tightrope before she takes to the stage and pulls a stance. Silence, posed, establishing who’s in charge here and then off we go. We were in the field before for Noah Kahan, where the heartbreak is cathartic, and now we’re here for Olivia where the heartbreak is fierce, livid, an energy built from anger and pain… and this starts only seconds into the first song.
There are no nerves. Obviously Olivia has been commanding big stages around the world for a while now so Glastonbury is just another day for her, but it’s still impressive to see and feel this complete, hard formed control of her music and the audience. There are no backing dances, but there are guitar shred offs with her main axe wielder. It’s impressive: no running about with routines, just Olivia’s vocals as the focus, just the pain of the music.
I’ve mentioned that Olivia takes us through painful feelings, but that’s needs clarity. This isn’t some goth event about death, this isn’t some metal talking about rending limbs from bodies. Olivia sings about life, now, for people, especially young people, especially in a world where social media has introduced new norms we don’t understand yet… and, of course, the ever present but now surely more complicated world of relationships, betrayal and heartbreak.
If that’s what you’re into, this is a blinding set. Olivia has the tunes, the voice, the presence, the band. If you’re not… yeah she’s not going to win you over if you want some cheerful vibes this is not the place. What she is going to do is tell the crowd to get their phones out and hold their lights us, the field erupting in a glowing flowers waving from side to side.
It turns out Glastonbury is special to her: “Glastonbury’s been my dream festival forever and I can’t believe today’s the day,” she tells us. For her, “I love writing music more than anything.” Then a major surprise (well, I’m sure anyone reading Twitter has heard this is happening), but A “wildly excited” Olivia introduces a special guest, “the best songwriter to come out of England”: actual fucking Robert Smith to do Friday I’m In Love and more. I should probably erase the goth bit from earlier. Olivia follows this up by saying she loves England, including how no one judges a midday pint and Colin the Caterpillar.
There’s a dive offstage, a dash of video, then Olivia’s back in Union Jack hotpants urging us to get angry and scream like we don’t need to talk tomorrow (do not try this at home.) She didn’t need to ask because the whole crowd yelled like a damn sociopath a short while later…
Olivia Rodriquez: she knows, she’s gonna drive us through it and backing dancers are for cowards.