All Photo Credit: Kili Goodrich
Collecting her deserved des fleurs: Tove LO brings the Estrus tour to los angeles
The Greek Theatre glowed beneath the Los Angeles stars as Tove Lo brought her Estrus era to life. After following the Swedish pop star through every era, finally photographing her was a bucket-list moment. Even sweeter by watching an entire crowd give flowers of love and celebration to one of the best pop stars of our generation.
Tove Lo
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I have been waiting for this show for a long time. I've followed Tove Lo since the beginning, through every album, every beautiful era, every relatable unfiltered confession disguised as a pop song. I've watched her career move from the stark heartbreak of Queen of the Clouds through the seductive darkness of Lady Wood, the glittering chaos of Blue Lips, the warmth and vulnerability of Sunshine Kitty, (even a tour with a boot on her foot still rocking it…) and the more intimate, self-possessed world of Dirt Femme. Getting the opportunity to photograph her was a blistering dream. It was a bucket-list moment and the Greek Theatre was the perfect place for it.
Under a clear Los Angeles sky, the venue glowed around her. Fans arrived carrying handmade artwork, little cards to hand to strangers, bracelets carefully made for trading. The community was warm, and inviting. Everyone had their own favorite era. Their own song. Their own memory attached to her music. As I was gifted a card at the barricade, I listened to all of the love being poured.
I spotted Tove in the shadows during roomie, wrapped in white draping as the Estrus mirrored block caught the light. Reflected across its surface were lyrics, symbols and visual fragments from her different eras. Fans appeared in the reflection too. With faces illuminated with anticipation.
“I'm the Cake” made the Swedish artist appear on a platform above. I, like everyone else, immediately began to dance. “Cool Girl” brought Tove’s flowy garment to the front of the stage. “My Gun” was the darker pulse of her earlier work. Blue lasers cut across The Greek during “Are U Gonna Tell Her?” It’s so entrancing how Tove Lo hooks an audience through her language of motion while performing.
That has always been one of her greatest strengths as a performer. She can stand at the center of a production, big, or small, and make the material startlingly personal. There is no preciousness to her. She is sensual without becoming distant, vulnerable without fully breaking. Which, to me, gives the safe space to be open about your own personal thoughts. Desires, struggles, whatever it may be.
Completely willing to let the uglier or stranger parts of being human exist alongside the glitter. “Des Fleurs x Stromae” her collaboration with Stromae, opened the second chapter with an extended introduction before moving into “Moments,” “If I Could I Would,” “Die for My Art with a Lonely Heart” and “Grapefruit.” The latter carried an entirely different weight.
“Grapefruit” remains one of Tove's most devastatingly honest songs, confronting body dysmorphia and the distorted relationship between the body and the person living inside it. Hearing it in a room this large didn't dilute its intimacy. If anything, the size of the audience made its honesty feel even more powerful.
Following was, “Idiot,” “DNH” and “Talking Body,” All of her songs are a catharsis release to belt. Though her latest album, Estrus, has been released for a short time, fans sung every work. Marked the album with just as much love as her chapters before.
Tape Three went straight for the dancing jugular: “Disco Tits,” “Bitches,” “2 Die 4” and “Source of Life.” Lethal and completely feral. Every song carried the fingerprints of a different Tove Lo era, and they all blended into a beautiful collective with the crowd.
“No One Dies From Love” was enormous. Cinematic with how heartbreak feels intensely physical underneath its intoxicating rhythm. “Are We on a Break,” followed by “F.A.M.T.” my personal favorite from Estrus. The new material was completely at home alongside the older songs. Estrus seems to understand Tove's catalog better than anyone. The sexuality, the humor, the melancholy, the recklessness, the vulnerability. It isn't a departure of eras so much as another door into the same complicated, beautiful interior world.
“Habits (Stay High)” is a millennium anthem dripped with nostalgia. Hearing an entire Greek Theatre sing it back to Tove was surreal. The extended intro to “The Bad One” brought us toward the end of the main set before Tove disappeared and returned for the encore. “HEAT” dripped in sweat. Fully hot, immediate and unapologetic. “I'm Your Girl,” was the final release of the night.
I kept thinking about that first moment during “roomie”, watching Tove's silhouette emerge from behind the white fabric while the mirrored block reflected the audience back at itself. She has spent years writing about the things people don't always want to say out loud, or confront to themselves, and has turned those truths into some of the most exhilarating pop music of her generation. For this night, The Greek Theatre fully belonged to Tove Lo’s command, and the audience poured their unconditional love and support back at her like fields of flowers beneath her feet.
Article by: Kili Goodrich
Plug In. Tune Out.
Tove Lo has spent more than a decade turning the intoxicating and deeply human parts of pop into an exhilarating, masterful ride. Estrus, she steps even further into uninhibited territory. Embracing desire, lust, self-discovery, bodily autonomy and the complicated thrill of being unapologetically alive. Few pop artists have maintained Tove Lo’s ability to make vulnerability sound enormous. She remains one of the most captivating performers in contemporary pop genre.
