girl in red, Electric Ballroom, London

If you’d heard a thousand people screaming, “There’s a dead girl in the pool!” anywhere other than the Electric Ballroom tonight, you’d be forgiven for being a little panicked. But since this is the London leg of girl in red’s European tour, there’s no need to worry.
“This is a fucking big ass building! That’s super cool!”, gasps the singer, aka 20-year-old Marie Ulven, running her hands anxiously through her hair. “I just swore a lot”, she stutters, tripping over her words. “My mum is here - I love you. You taught me all the swearing, anyway.” Marie hasn’t only built a world for herself - but a community and a safe haven to shelter it - from the thoughts of new love that kept her up at night in her bedroom. Heart fully on sleeve, her confessions of “They’re so pretty it hurts / I’m not talking ‘bout boys, I’m talking ‘bout girls / They’re so pretty with their button-up shirts” has primed her to be the gay musical role model she never had.

Her twinkling sonic signatures that contrast with anthemic choruses have a dual effect on the audience. Rollicking opener, ‘bad idea!’, is a livewire. Living up to her lyrics and throwing caution to the wind, Marie and her band whip up a storm with mosh-inducing energy, leaving hair damp and stuck to faces. Never underestimate the vibrancy even the saddest indie music can bring to a crowd. While ‘dead girl in the pool.’ and ‘i’ll die anyway.’ pay homage to the singer’s morbid preoccupations - or, depending on how you look at it, her optimism that it could always be worse - she reassures the audience, a ray of sunshine no less: “But still, I wrote a bop!”