What You Missed: Girl in Red at The Sylvee

The Sylvee's stage is decorated with a little extra red than usual. girl in red--stylized with all lower case--decorates her set with primary colors and rounded shapes, the type of designs you might find in a contemporary furniture magazine or an Ikea catalogue. She parades down blue stairs while her band stands on yellow squares. Her piano is hidden behind a red rectangle, and up above our heads is a red dome with projections occasionally scattering across for only those underneath it to see. It's somehow both a playground (the actual name of the set) and a therapist's office.

girl in red approaches her show with the same passion as a toddler on a playground. She runs on stage in an oversized white button up and loose pants, like a child dressing up in her dad's clothes, and throughout the night, she'll have to carelessly run her hand through her long hair to tame it after headbanging.

You won't find much of an accent left in Marie Ulven Ringheim's speaking voice, but if you listen close, you might be able to find a little Norwegian tinge in her voice. In fact, if you search the archives for videos of her performing around 2018, when she first broke into the indie rock scene, her accent was thicker and her riffs grittier. She's taken several steps since her first burst of success from her bedroom-made singles like, "i wanna be your girlfriend," and "Summer Depression." It's interesting listening to her older work and comparing it to her newest major label album, I'M DOING IT AGAIN BABY! as she's moved away from moody indie rock and blossomed into alternative pop, where she can comfortably shred on her headlining tour while also finding fans in Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, which she opened for last year.

But Marie still has a little bite left in her--she's a true rockstar, taking up as much physical space as possible, and never missing a moment to thrash around with her band. In previous tours, you'd never see her put down her guitar; with this tour, she looks freer without it.

Her choice for openers also indicates a tie to the rock scene, as Momma stick tight to a grunge-filled set. It's not the band's first time in Madison, as they've also performed with Snail Mail and Weezer at other Madison venues within the past couple of years. The gritty foursome keep the lights low as they lay into distorted choruses about getting on the road and never looking back.

It shouldn't take you too long of listening through Marie's discography to realize that she's unapologetically gay; even scrolling through her singles' cover art should give you a good idea of that. You might also hear her mental health struggles in her work as she contemplates her depression and the creeping anxiety that frequently goes hand-in-hand.

girl in red's setlist weaves between new and old, scattering in the songs that gave her a start, like "bad idea!" and the famous, "we fell in love in october." This new album, however, perks up a bit from the drowsy angst of her earliest work; instead she sounds refreshed and ready for anything. Marie is here to try it all with fresh new eyes and a regular dose of serotonin. In the opening track of the album, she even explains, "I was gone for a minute 'cause I went to get help/It's not like I wanna die/At least not now, I love being alive."

Throughout the show, Marie is charmingly candid and incredibly interactive with a very vocal audience. There's a point where she shyly admits that she has a crush on rising star, Chappell Roan. She then, unrehearsed, asks fans in the audience to look up the lyrics to Chappell's, "Good Luck Babe!" so she can do a partial on-the-spot cover, which she later pairs with a Renee Rapp song that she makes up on the spot. At one point, she remembers that it's Sunday, which prompts an audience member to ask if she's "lesbian Jesus." A hand-crocheted hat gets thrown on stage, and she wears it for a good portion of the show. A fan in front asks if she'll do their BeReal, to which Marie responds, "I thought BeReal died."

Towards the end of the night, girl in red gets off the stage and maneuvers her way into the screaming crowd. Everyone's phones go into the air as she parts the sea to find her way to the back of the pit by the soundboard. She passes by teary-eyed teens and fans covering their mouths in awe. I can imagine the post-concert depression that'll fall onto them tomorrow. But to mirror what Marie said earlier in the night: "I know that I'm not going to feel like this forever, but I'm happy right now."