Robyn brought her 'Honey' tour to Aragon Ballroom (pics, video, setlist)
Robyn’s brand of dance pop hinges on a balancing act between ecstasy and introspection. On Wednesday at the sold-out Aragon Ballroom, the scales tipped toward the lighter side of the spectrum, with the singer skipping, twirling, tumbling and even back-flipping as the beats rolled through a bobbing, fist-pumping audience.
But the darker stuff was always there, hanging around the fringes, and it made all that motion on the stage feel less like an act of pure joy and more like a purge, a way of blasting a hole through all that loneliness and anxiety in Robyn’s emotionally layered songs.
A concert that began with the singer standing virtually motionless behind her microphone burst into the rumbling “Love is Free,” with Robyn in a frenzy of hips and limbs atop a synth groove that built to a roar. And yet a few songs later the celebration that greeted her biggest hit, “Dancing on My Own,” turned the singer motionless yet again at the end, her back turned to the audience, arms crossed, hands grasping her shoulders, as if giving herself a consoling hug. [Greg Kot for Chicago Tribune]
Robyn is on a North American tour now, supporting her excellent 2018 album Honey, which was her first album in eight years and one of our favorites of 2018. The tour is about to land in NYC for a big NYC show on Friday (3/8) at Madison Square Garden (which is almost sold out), but first we caught her at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom last night (3/6). She played almost every song on Honey, plus classics like “Be Mine!,” “With Every Heartbeat,” “Call Your Girlfriend,” and “Dancing on My Own,” and some of her collaborations with other artists like her Kindness collab “Who Do You Love?,” her Mr. Tophat collab “Trust Me,” and her La Bagatelle Magique collab “Love Is Free.” Pictures are in the gallery above and you can see her full setlist and a video below.
Kindness also opened the show, as did Channel Tres, and today Kindness released the new Robyn collab “Cry Everything.” Kindness and Channel Tres are both playing the MSG show too.
Meanwhile, Robyn recently announced that she’ll return to Chicago in July to headline day three of Pitchfork Festival.
Robyn at Aragon Ballroom – 3/6/19 Setlist (via)
Send to Robin Immediately
Honey
Indestructible
Hang With Me
Beach2k20
Ever Again
Be Mine!
Because It’s in the Music
Between the Lines
Love Is Free (Robyn & La Bagatelle Magique song)
Don’t Fucking Tell Me What to Do (The Mekanism Remix)
Dancing on My Own
Missing U
Call Your Girlfriend
Encore:
Trust Me (Mr. Tophat & Robyn song)
Stars 4-Ever
With Every Heartbeat
Encore 2:
Human Being
Who Do You Love? (Joakim Remix) (Kindness & Robyn song)
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photos by James Richards IV
