The opening night performance of Olivia Rodrigo‘s Guts Tour — which premiered Friday night in Palm Springs — is on the record books, and fans eager to know if their favorites made the setlist now have some idea what to expect as the tour winds its way through the U.S. and Europe for the next six months.
For anyone wondering which covers she might performing this time around: there aren’t any. All 22 songs in the set come from Rodrigo’s two albums, “Sour” and “Guts” — including one of the exclusive bonus tracks that came with some editions of the latter album:, “Obsessed,” an especially welcome component of the set for fans who are, well, obsessed.
Although Rodrigo did wear an “I’m Just a Girl” T-shirt for the encore, that No Doubt song was not included in the show, as it was on many of the concerts on her 2022 trek. It’s clear that she feels the covers she did on her debut tour were a sort of Hamburger Helper to help flesh out a set that was based on a 35-minute freshman album. But now she’s got enough original material to fill a 95-minute set, and she was eager to play almost all of it live. In fact, she played all 12 of the songs on the standard edition of “Guts,” plus that bonus track as a 13th number. As for “Sour,” Rodrigo included nine of its 11 songs in the set (omitting only “1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back” and the somber closer “Hope Ur OK”).
Another difference from the 2022 tour: the inclusion of eight dancers, who sometimes indulged in choreography that was seen in overhead camera views, but often disappeared from the stage during either the most intimate or most hard-rocking numbers.
The production of the tour is not wildly elaborate by contemporary standards, with Rodrigo’s charisma serving as special effect enough. But there was one major production setpiece — a quarter-moon prop that Rodrigo sat on and sang from as it circled the arena through two numbers, “Logical” and “Enough for You.”
Rodrigo was in an ebullient mood at the end of the 95 minutes, climbing down from one of the two ramps that jutted out into the GA area to make physical contact with the fans gathered around the ramp for a couple of minutes after the performance ended.
Variety will have a full review of the opening night, along with photos from the show, on Saturday.
Speculation about the content of the set had been a trending topic on X (formerly Twitter) all day leading up to the performance, reflecting the Guts Tour’s status as one of 2024’s hottest tickets.
Rodrigo opened the tour Friday night in the same region of the country where she’ll wrap it up: in her native Southern California. Friday’s show was at the Acrisure Arena in Palm Springs, a venue that many California concertgoers are still encountering for the first time, since it only opened 14 months ago and many L.A. music fans hadn’t yet made the trek out to the desert to check out the region’s newest large-scale facility. The tour will come back around and wrap up with four shows at the Kia Forum Aug. 14-17.
Chappell Roan was the opening act Friday night, as she will be for all of Rodrigo’s tour dates through April 2, at which point the Breeders will take over for a few dates, followed by Remi Wolf and PinkPantheress.
Here is the full setlist for Rodrigo’s opening night at Acrisure Arena:
Bad Idea, Right?
Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl
Vampire
Traitor
Drivers License
Teenage Dream
Pretty Isn’t Prety
Love Is Embarrassing
Making the Bed
Logical
Enough for You
Lacy
Jealousy, Jealousy
Happier
Favorite Crime
Déjà vu
The Grudge
Brutal
Obsessed
All-American Bitch
Good 4 U
Get Him Back!