NOTE: All photos are copyright of Howard Shiau Photography 2025
It’s been quite a year for beabadoobee (aka Beatrice Kristi Ilejay Laus). She has been touring non-stop since April with stops globally, during which she also released her sophomore studio album “Beatopia”. On Thursday, she stopped at History in Toronto just prior to wrapping up her tour tonight in Boston. After a well deserved rest, she’ll be making a few more stops in Europe next spring before joining Taylor Swift on her US tour.
Opening the show was a young indie band Lowetown from Atlanta, led by guitarist/lead vocalist Olivia Osby and guitarist Avshalom Weinberg. What a fun opener they turned out to be! With a garage band sound that really brings the listener back and a stage presence that urges everyone to get involved, they are definitely worth a listen. I’ll be checking on their catalogue of songs as soon I get the chance!
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The full house went bananas when beabadoobee hit the stage. She kicked off the show with “10:36” from Beatopia and the crowd immediately sang along. It was going to be one of those nights when the crowd sings along to every song! While the lighting was mostly dark and moody, the songs from her record felt poppy and lighthearted, definitely more so than her earlier work (she has admitted to writing most of Beatopia while high). beaubadoobee told the crowd how happy she was that there were so many people there that looked like her and dressed like her in this male dominated music industry.
The setlist represented a pretty good spread of songs from throughout her career with six songs from both her studio albums and various songs from her EPs for a total of a very nice twenty songs! I was sad that one of my early favorites “Tired” was dropped but she more than made up for it with an acoustic version of “Ripples” during the encore. It’s such a sad but touching song and is perfect on those rainy days when you’re feeling a bit melancholy. At the end of the show, beabadoobee started throwing the many stuffed animals that were on stage into the crowd, initiating a mad scramble! Those in the front row may not have gotten a stuffed animal but they were front and center for a wonderful show. When beabadoobee tours with Taylor Swift, she’ll be exposed to a massive new audience and I expect that she’ll also be moving on to larger venues the next time I see one of her headlining shows. Looking forward to continuing to see how this young artist evolves.
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