Lorde will never forget the first time she performed at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. It came in 2014, one year after she delivered the all-time great debut “Pure Heroine,” and she remembers being welcomed by this “roaring wall of people” as she took the stage.
“I had never seen anything like this,” Lorde says. “It totally imprinted in my mind that day.”
Since that moment — which actually came during her fourth time through the Bay Area on the landmark Pure Heroine Tour — Lorde has wanted to return to play the historic building that she calls “the most beautiful venue in the world.”
And on Sunday night — almost exactly 11 years after making her debut in Berkeley — Lorde finally made it happen.
“When we were booking this tour, I literally had one request: I said, ‘Could we play the Greek?” the 28-year-old New Zealand-born singer-songwriter said to fans. “So this is officially a passion situation for me — the reason we are here.”
Actually, that was the reason we were all here — to take in, and to give back, the passion. And it was in ample supply, on both sides of the equation, as the star of the night gave her all in front of a energized sold-out crowd that greeted each and every song of the 23-number set like it was the exact right one for the exact right moment.
Taking the stage right around 8:15 p.m., Lorde — who has always seemed to have an innate understanding of the power of minimalism on both the live stage and the recording studio — appeared on a mostly dark stage, letting the shadows and the mystery sell much of the moment, as she belted out “Hammer.”
It was a visually dramatic opener, as the real life Lorde was captured in a spotlight on the stage while a huge video image of the scene towered over her shoulders, perfectly matching the drama conveyed by the escalating mix of both live instrumentation and electronics.
Starting with “Hammer,” Lorde would play all 11 tracks from 2025’s “Virgin” during the roughly 100-minute show. All of those numbers sounded terrific in concert, further underscoring why “Virgin” is one of the very best albums of the year.
Judging from the crowd reactions, most people seemed to be familiar with the new material. Yet, if anyone was feeling left out on the opening number sing-along that would most definitely change when Lorde followed up with her signature song — the Diamond-certified break-through smash “Royals” — which had everyone chanting along to the lyrics at top volume.
This track remains one of the crowning musical achievements of the new millennium and, clearly, has lost none of its bite over the years. Written by Lorde at the age of 15 — at her home in reportedly just 30 minutes time — “Royals” continues to ring as nothing short of pure genius in the way it uses clever rhymes and micro-beats to address such heavy themes as cultural imperialism, conspicuous consumption and unrealistic pop-culture standards, with the end product being something that both sounds great on the radio and would be worthy of lengthy study in a high-level music theory course.
“Royals” was such a highlight that it’s remarkable that — with the song coming so earlier in the set — the rest of the show didn’t feel a tad bit anticlimactic. Instead, it just keep right on building, growing more powerful and meaningful, as the night progressed.
Lorde’s voice was absolutely pristine as she continued to mix such new songs as “Broken Glass” and “Favourite Daughter” with standouts from her first two albums — 2013’s “Pure Heroine” and 2017’s “Melodrama” — as she worked through a production that was at least as much performance art as it was regular pop concert.
She’d play five songs a piece from those two highly beloved albums, the first of which clearly ranks as one of the most impressive debuts in pop music history and the latter being a breathtaking sophomore effort that continues to grow in prestige through the years.
There was such joy to be found at the heart of every single song — yes, even the ones that trade in such devastating sadness as “Liability” — and that comes from witnessing an artist who is just in such a really good place in both her life and career right now. She’s in a reflective mood these days. But she’s also very comfortable living in the moment.
“The older I get, I think it’s really important to come full circle with certain moments of life — to revisit something that happened 10 or 12 years ago and feel what is the same and what is different,” she told the crowd. “A lot is the same for me and a lot is different. I have been reflecting on this tour that, in some ways, I feel that this is the first year of my career. Because I feel a new curiosity and playfulness and openness — which I am incredibly grateful to have on year 13.”
Singing from her knees at moments, and then moving to her back as she looked up at the Berkeley sky, Lorde sold the small moments as convincingly as anybody in the business. She’s so good at doing the opposite of what is expected — downsizing her performance and going for pure intimacy when others would travel the over-the-top pop spectacle route — and it serves to strengthen her connection with the crowd in ways that are simply breathtaking.
Oh, but Lorde can go the other direction as well — with spellbinding results — as she turned the Greek into one big dance party with the high-octane “Greenlight,” the 2021 “Solar Power” single that may well be the finest pop song of the decade.
Lorde closed the show by venturing down from the stage and out into the crowd, eventually landing by the soundboard to party with 8,000-plus fans through an utterly satisfying extended take on the “Pure Heroine” classic “Ribs.”
What a way to mark her long-awaited return to the Greek. Hopefully Lorde won’t make us wait another 11 years before she visits “the most beautiful venue in the world” again.
Lorde setlist:
1. “Hammer”
2. “Royals”
3. “Broken Glass”
4. “Buzzcut Season”
5. “Favourite Daughter”
6. “Perfect Places”
7. “Shapeshifter”
8. “Current Affairs”
9. “Supercut”
10. “No Better”
11. “GRWM”
12. “The Louvre”
13. “Oceanic Feeling”
14. “Big Star”
15. “Liability”
16. “Clearblue”
17. “Man of the Year”
18. “If She Could See Me Now”
19. “Team”
20. “What Was That”
21. “Green Light”
22. “David”
23. “Ribs”
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