REVIEW: Suki Waterhouse "Loveland Tour"
It's never a good sign when you walk away from a show without being able to describe the type of vibe the performing artist wanted to emanate.
I had the privilege of kicking off my week-long concert melee by seeing Suki Waterhouse at MGM Music Hall in Fenway - her largest performance in Boston to date. Last time she toured was at Roadrunner, a 2000-person capacity venue. It's cool to see artists you love get bigger and bigger, their impact growing with each passing song and album they release.
Alice Suki Waterhouse was born in London in January 1992 to a cancer care nurse mom and plastic surgeon dad. Suki kicked off her career at the age of 16 when she was scouted at a London pub (or an H&M, there seems to be conflicting stories on ther origins). Soon after beginning her career in modeling in 2008, she was contracted to model for major brands such as Burberry, Ferragamo, and famed lingerie brand Marks & Spencer. Around 2014, she transitioned into acting, securing roles in the Divergent series and the romance thriller The Bad Batch, both of which flopped critically (the latter, commercially too).
This wouldn't discourage Waterhouse though! In 2018, she starred in a batshit crazy thriller called Assassination Nation, which is when (in my opinion) the general public started to really take notice of Waterhouse. I thought she was terrific in the movie, and personally enjoyed the movie overall. While her movie stardom was rising, her music stardom was as well: in 2017, Suki released her smash-hit single Good Looking (although interestingly enough, it wouldn't become as huge as it is now until 2022 thanks to TikTok). One could say that Suki's rise to fame was a bit of a slow burn: she was building up her resume for years, finally achieving mainstream success through the aforementioned popular social media app.
I personally became a huge fan of Suki's work with her release of her second studio album, Memoir of a Sparklemuffin, in 2024. I initially wrote it off because, let's be honest, that is an unbelievably stupid name for an album. But as the saying goes: "Don't Judge a Book By It's Cover!". I can't remember if I overheard one of the songs at a party or if it just came up in a recommended songs playlist on Spotify*, but something inspired me to give it a try.
*I have since switched to using Apple Music. I highly encourage everyone to read the book Mood Machine, as it details just how much Spotify is contributing to the downfall of the integrity of music and its hand in the implementation of AI music.
I am SO glad I did give the album a shot! Every single song is beautifully produced, and Suki has such as distinct, deep singing style that, despite her vocal range not being big, her voice stands out pretty tremendously. The songs are a great combination of classic rock and pop, borrowing familiar instrumental string styles from both genres to create a roller coaster of a listening experience.
Naturally, I HAD to see her live. I was able to score tickets for her 2024 Memoir of a Sparklemuffin tour with my good friend Ian (and funny enough, ran into my other good friends Emilee and Montana there), and she blew all of my expectations out of the water. While her vocals were not quite as strong, the stage design, vision, and technical aspects of the show were perfectly crafted, creating an immersive listening experience that helped to achieve (what I think is) a concert's greatest goal: get people to love the album even more than they did going in to the show.
Her next studio album that she released, Loveland, didn't quite land as hard for me, but I was still willing to see her again since I had such a good time at her last tour. While Suki tremendously improved her stage presence and vocals, the stage setup itself left a lot to be desired. Let's get into the nitty gritty!
Strengths
This is going to be a more interesting review for me to write because I can directly compare her performance this time to the last time I saw her live. Like I said, Loveland, did not resonate with me as much as Sparklemuffin, but that’s okay! I am reviewing her performance and concert, not her music!
The biggest improvement I saw between Suki’s last tour and this tour was her stage presence. Suki seemed way more confident in her abilities to command a crowd than she did last time around. From the moment she stepped on stage to the moment she left, she never once seemed to falter, despite a few small things seeming to go wrong during the show (no faults that major enough to report here, just some cues that looked like her band may have missed here and there, but never once did I see her falter). Her ability to work the crowd and get them involved improved a lot as well; I never got bored of watching her on stage. She wanted all eyes on her the second she stepped foot on to that stage, and boy did she achieve that goal: she started the show off by walking on to the stage from the side, dramatically draping herself over a grand piano, a large arrow visibly protruding out of her chest. (I do wish she had emerged from the large rhinestone heart prop that was placed in the center of the stage, though, I think that would have been a much more fun way to start the show).
Suki Waterhouse has the benefit of a very distinct singing voice, which is important in the crowded pop genre. She used this distinct sound well, on top of sounding stronger vocally (compared to her last tour). Suki did not seem to rely on pitch correction (as she did hit a few flat notes, but that’s showbiz baby!). Like I said before, her confidence was markedly improved from last time, and I did not see her so much as blink when she (very rarely) did hit an aforementioned flat note during her performance. Mrs. Waterhouse also utilized the stage space very well (important distinction between space and setup: I see stage space as how an artist actually uses the stage they are on, while stage setup is how an artist interacts with how the stage is set up, whether its using or interacting with any props or other constructed objects on stage); she was all over the place, and I mean that as a compliment! She moved all around the stage, the set pieces, and her backing band, interacting with them during multiple parts of the show which I absolutely loved. It’s nice when a performing artist gets their support band involved. Too many times I have seen artists give the obligatory “backing band” or “backup dancer” introduction towards the end of the show, not letting any of their supporting band members'/dancers' personalities or talents shine through – this was not the case here. Suki seemed to allow her backing band members to have their moment in the spotlight, giving them more depth and making the concert feel more immersive.
Overall, Suki Waterhouse, as both a singer and performer, has GREATLY improved, and I cannot wait to see what she creates as she gets further into her career.
Unfortunately, I cannot hold the same positive attitude for the tour stage setup. Before I move on to the weaknesses (which will be mostly comprised of the stage setup), I do want to highlight a few strengths of the technical and artistic aspects of the show:
Suki & her technicians did a great job matching the lighting color schemes to each song she performed. The moods that the lighting design gave off perfectly correlated with the mood she seemed to want to project onto the audience. I give props to her lighting design team – it seemed as though they put more thought into the lighting design than just the typical copy-and-paste lighting styles that I have seen so many concerts use in the past (when I say copy-and-paste, I just mean using basic flashing lighting or spotlights to add excitement without actually adding any depth or emotion. Does that make sense?)
The whole stage design (at least, the bare amount that was on stage) and costume choices gave off a very groovy, 60’s/70’s-type of hippie vibe. This matched well with the album theme itself (even though, as a whole, I wasn't really sold on this image... more in the next section), as the album utilizes a lot of old-style sounds that one could find on a Nancy Sinatra or Jefferson Airplane album. I always appreciate it when touring artists at least attempt to match the touring style to the album style, because poor tour design can ruin a listener’s perspective of an album; for example, why the hell were there giant construction cranes as part of Tate McRae’s Miss Possessive tour?! That design choice made absolutely no sense when the album she was touring for, So close to what, seemed to lean more into a sporty, F1, teen pop kind of vibe.
Weaknesses
Most of my criticisms for this show are more geared towards the technical and visual design side of the Loveland concert experience. Sonically, Suki and her team sounded great! It is unfortunate I cannot say the same for the stage itself.
Oh man, this section hurt my heart to write. I had such high expectations for Suki’s stage design. The stage design for her 2024 tour, the Sparklemuffin Tour, was GORGEOUS. The stage for that tour featured a colorful jungle backdrop with giant tree props, a disco ball covered in vines and other greenery, and a beautiful spider’s web in the center of the stage. Behind the spider’s web was a backdrop that would project various nighttime and daytime color hues throughout the show, giving the entire stage a very colorful, immersive look and feel.
Imagine my surprise to see how little thought seemed to be put into the stage setup for this tour.
The setup for this tour was quite spartan – a basic, multi-level platform with large sheer curtains and a rhinestone heart prop placed at the center. While the stage admittedly appeared classy and elegant, it almost reminded me of West Elm products; beautiful craftsmanship but no personality whatsoever. Other than Suki's actual performance, the lighting effects saved the show from being a total bore to watch. There were great bursts of color that matched each song she was singing coming from all corners of the stage, but aligned in a way that made for a very aesthetically pleasing viewing.
I couldn’t believe how little props, items, or other objects were on stage, especially compared to what she accomplished on her last tour. Given that this tour was seemingly bigger than the last one (Reminder that her last tour was held in a 2000-person capacity venue and this time around it was in a 5000-person capacity venue), one would think that Suki and her team would go even bigger, louder, and bolder. Her album themes gave her so much material to work with. My biggest frustration, however, was how little this spartan setup was leveraged by Suki on stage (Like I said earlier, Suki used the stage space well with her own body while performing, just not the stage setup). One of my all-time favorite concerts I have ever attended, Lily Allen’s West End Girl tour, had a bare-bones stage setup but was excellently utilized to tell a compelling story. Suki could have done the same here, but chose to opt in to a more traditional concert experience - unfortunately for her, the image she seems to want to embody requires more than just a few cute costumes and stage props; she should have gone bigger and more grand with the stage setup.
Suki seems to want to achieve real pop stardom - maybe not to the level of Lady Gaga, but she is certainly trying to curate a specific image that would lead one to think she wants to carve herself out from the rest of the pop genre. I think, to successfully accomplish that goal, you have to really lean in to the image you want to be and almost go over-the-top with it. Doja Cat is a great example of this; every time she moves on to a new project and wants to try a new sound, she completely leans in to it, from her costuming to her public performances, even down to the way she interviews. This allows a fan or listener to "buy in" to what kind of product Doja Cat is trying to sell; it creates a more immersive album cycle experience. Doja Cat does a fabulous job going over-the top to sell the image she wants to embody, and Suki Waterhouse could do well take a few notes from her.
This semi-coherent rambling leads me my final big issue of the concert: Suki didn't do a great job of selling me on her new image for this album cycle. Ever since Taylor Swift popularized the concept of having "eras", pop artists in particular have really leaned in to the marketing side of album releases, attempting to curate a specific brand or image with each new project. I mentioned earlier how the theme for this new album was akin to Nancy Sinatra/Jefferson Airplane - a little hippie, a little groovy, and very retro. At the risk of contradicting my earlier point that the costuming was strong, Suki just didn't sell me on this album's imagery. The stage setup was too bare-bones, and while the little design that did exist on the stage matched the theming, it wasn't enough for me to really "buy in" to what she was selling. That's not to say Loveland is a bad album - it's not! I just wasn't fully sold on the new persona Suki was trying to epitomize.
Final Thoughts
While Suki has undoubtedly improved as a vocalist and performer, the technical and design aspects of the show did not really sell me on the image she was trying to project. To be a successful pop star, you have to have a distinct brand. I should be able to point to something and say "wow, that really reminds me of Suki Waterhouse". This album and tour, unfortunately, did not have that effect. Given that Suki has a very distinct voice, and is clearly working to improve her talents, she has potential to be one of The Greats, she just has a little more to go.
Feeling a 3 out of 5 on this one.
