Early in the set, Alice Merton sings “Vertigo” from her 2022 album, S.I.D.E.S. This song truly rocks and showcases her powerful leading vocals. It’s immediately clear this is going to be a great show.

Later on she talks about how she was in a toxic professional relationship. This person made her feel like the smallest person in the room. She broke contact with this person and wrote “Same Team” about them. “We’re not two sides of the same team anymore / No, I just can’t, I just can’t”. It’s a powerful song about breaking free.

Alice says she moved around a lot as a kid. At 13, she moved from Canada to Germany. She found it very difficult to learn the language. “There are six words for the!” She starts to go into further detail but then stops herself saying she is talking too much. The audience responds that they like it. So, she continues to say that with all this moving around that she never feels “Homesick”, which is the title of the next song. “No, I don’t get homesick / But I’m sick when I’m without you.”

This theme continues on her biggest hit, “No Roots”. “Ask me where I come from, I’ll say a different land”. This song has over 366 million streams on Spotify.

It has been 5 years since her last show in Chicago. The pandemic and some issues with visas caused this long delay. See our review of the opener, Parker Bossley, at this show in April of 2019, here.

Merton ends the set with “Why So Serious” from her 2019 album, Mint. “I stole the phrase from The Joker. Please don’t sue me!” “I wanna live in the now / I’m not gonna live in the past / Don’t wanna care about what-ifs / ‘Cause what if those things don’t last? / And I wanna live with no regrets”. What a great song to end with!

See the full setlist here.

Cost of a ticket: $32

PlaylistHQ Economic Rating: Worth It +

Rating Scale: Exceptional Value > Worth It > Discounted > Go for Free > Don’t Bother

Quinn Delaney