Paris Paloma in Bristol: arena-scale alt-pop drama

British singer-songwriter Paris Paloma gave a concert in Bristol featuring material from her second album, The Fatal Flaw. A Guardian music review describes the show as a stepping stone to bigger things, noting that the audience danced even to a song that has not yet been released.

The track, Fairy Dance, is about the community that has grown up around her music. Some fans wore flower garlands in their hair and danced with their arms around friends.

Sound and staging

The album's songs pair ornate folk arrangements with the arena-sized alt-pop production favoured by Florence + the Machine. A sculpture inspired by surrealist Ithell Colquhoun's Tree of Veins dominated the stage. Paloma dropped to her knees to hit high notes and sought out wind machines at the front of the stage, which buffeted her flowing crimson dress.

Themes

Her set builds on her breakout single Labour, combining feminist anger with open-ended questions about culture and identity. During Good Girl, the audience shouted the line "I will break your nose" from the stalls. The reviewer also singles out Rothko, about a teenage encounter with one of the artist's paintings, and Miyazaki, which frames creativity as a basic need in the face of AI evangelists.

The reviewer argues that her earnestness would be easy to knock, but that she has a point about celebrating what brings people together. By the end of the show Paloma was left in a heap on the floor, spent from pogoing, and her voice during Miyazaki was drowned out by the crowd.