Olivia Rodrigo, Glasgow Hydro review: A thrilling, blistering show

“How many best friends are in the audience tonight?” Californian superstar Olivia Rodrigo asked a feverish and overwhelmingly young female Glasgow crowd. The response, not for the first time, was deafening screams and hysteria. “Besties in the house!” she smiled in approval.

At 21, Rodrigo is the fastest-rising phenomenon of the decade, a Disney child actress who turned pop prodigy after her overnight viral 2021 lockdown hit “Driver’s Licence” broke Spotify records in 24 hours. Two mega-selling albums – 2021’s Sour and last year’s follow-up Guts – and three Grammys later, Rodrigo has become a Gen Z idol.

And the question she asked on the opening night of her “Guts” UK tour (postponed from Manchester last week courtesy of the debacle at the Co-Op Live Arena) went straight to the heart of her appeal. She pours out her soul, but she does so with boldness, self-deprecation and wit – but also, crucially, fun, offering a safe, enjoyable space for friends to bond around a relatable star.

Rodrigo with her band, a group of women, non-binary and trans musicians (Photo: Samir Hussein/Getty/LIVE Nation)

Songs skewering disappointing and manipulative men and the trials and tribulations of navigating complicated modern girlhood have proved catnip for a generation. Fans can’t get enough – the queues for merchandise were 10 times longer than for the bar – and Rodrigo’s request to “sing your little heart out” was wholly unnecessary. During “Vampire”, a deliciously rueful rock-ballad about a relationship with a questionable older man, Rodrigo was in danger of being drowned out.

Rodrigo, and this thrilling, fat-free 90-minute show, had two modes: blistering pop-punk and authentic balladry. She was equally adept at both, easily switching between angsty rock star and wholesome pop balladeer.

After a pre-concert video of Rodrigo running about “backstage” set the dial to 11 before she even appeared, what followed was a storming opening that put the power in power-pop: a hi-voltage take on the self-mocking “Bad Idea Right?”, about the wisdom of hooking up with an ex, and “Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl”, a 90s US alt-rock tune wrapped in pop bubblegum.

But she was soon at the piano pouring her heart out with “Driver’s Licence”, the night’s emotive highlight, a break-up ballad written when she was just 17.

The show’s production was relatively minimal by modern pop standards – two V-shaped walkways; a troupe of dancers who appeared sporadically – and Rodrigo’s costume changes amounted to different variations on a crop top and hot pants.

All of this came over more like a rock show, but she nonetheless did follow some big pop show tropes. During the fantastic ballad “Making the Bed” she lay flat on a rising stage; for two songs, she waved regally astride a slice of the moon hung from the roof that drifted around the arena’s circumference.

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This was a rare moment of Disney-fication. Rodrigo has outrun her child star upbringing – the F-word peppered both her songs and her on-stage chat – but that background means she knows exactly how to work a crowd. For all of her thrashing around and air-guitaring when the music got loud, there was more than an element of drama-school theatrics in the deliberate hand gestures and knowing looks, immaculately timed winks and open mouthed mock-indignance, the snarling lips and studied poses.

There were some show-stopping slower numbers, such as “Teenage Dreams”, a song about the fear of being over the hill at 17 (a very former child-star concern). But the show peaked in line with the excitement of the music. Rodrigo’s band, a group of women, non-binary and trans musicians, were a hard-wired rock collective, looking more dive bar than Disney, and the scorching closing section felt like a full-on rock show.

“Brutal”, a thrashy update of Elvis Costello’s “Pump it Up”, sounded just that as Rodrigo hi-kicked and crawled the floor; “Obsessed” was a gnarly take on an ex’s new flame, which ended with Rodrigo thrashing at a guitar on her knees back-to-back with her band, Boygenius-style; “All-American Bitch” was proper snotty pop-punk about societal expectation.

“Think of someone who really pisses you off and scream when the lights go down,” she said during the breakdown; the ear-splitting response was inevitable.

At Glasgow Hydro tonight, then touring