Ella Boh Opens Blurry Tour at SPACE in Evanston
Review by Allison Horvatin – Photo by Sophie Gallagher
Sandwiched between vintage dishware and artisan rug merchants, SPACE sits in Evanston. Cozy as a cabin, it hosts audiences from near and far. Tonight’s crowd, decked in black lace, chunky boots, and script tattoos, holds up their phones to capture the opening night of Ella Boh’s Blurry tour.
Before Ella takes the stage, the mushroom-shaped lights fade to reveal opener, Psylosia. Her music represents love through falling melodies and melting lyricism, preparing the audience for the unapologetically open catharsis Ella brings to the stage.
Ella Boh is a rising pop star, and she knows it. She wants it. Her set begins with three erect LED panels flooding the stage in blues, pinks, and reds. They then shift to white, star-like flickering, then sudden flashes like lightning.
Her presence shifts between herself and her silhouette, resembling her lyrics:
I’m slipping in my body // lightning, lightning, thunder, and lightning, from her opening song and tour title track, Blurry. In the lyrics of Blurry, Ella also sets up her homages to her Internet presences, quoting the meme really really really really sad.
Ella’s talent was springboarded by her cover of Careless Whisper, which has been used in hundreds of TikTok videos, many of which have boosted over 200,000 likes. Ella, however, won over her audience with far more than her cover.
Each of Ella’s songs is powered by unapologetic feminine desire. She takes us from Blurry, A MiLLiON DAGGERS, to iSOMNiAC and BAD MEDiCiNE, exploring chemically toxic desire for passionate love.
The lights blink, filling the stage in green. Ella is bringing the audience to her doctor’s appointment with her, only to be diagnosed with desire. She explores her desire in terms of her fame (beginning with another internet reference, to former TikTok star Addison Rae’s Fame is a Gun); the stage turns pink, and the audience is left entirely with the silhouette of Ella; they may know who she is, but she wants the whole world to know.
Her songs then narrow in on her desire: What’s gonna take to make you love me?, she cries to the audience, or perhaps the world, or perhaps a lover. Ella plays a love song on her guitar as if the audience is on a date with her in her bedroom and she’s written the song just for them.
Her heart still can’t decide what it wants:
a little bit obsessed with you, don’t wanna be your girl, just your muse.
This kind of obsession, she realizes, is not sustainable; she is bleeding out, but the audience loves it. She asks who a girlfriend is; she has plans to steal ur gf. She keeps them forever, serial killer.
The audience has fallen in love and died with Ella in Chicago (Evanston); she earned their trust and opens her heart. She debuts a new song, Choke. A lyrical ballad she performs from the ground, telling her new lovers they suffocate her by her will. She loves it.
She invites an audience member onstage and hands them a VHS camera; the audience member is nervous but declares everyone is so beautiful and I love everyone. Ella echoes the statement and declares her life for Chicago one last time before exiting.
Ella has a slew of concerts left after opening, and the glow from the TikTok screen is nothing compared to the lights of the shining star that is Ella Boh.
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Ella Boh Blurry Tour Dates:
October 1 – Pontiac, MI – The Crofoot – The Pike Room
October 3 – Toronto, ON – The Sound Garage at Blood Brothers Brewing
October 5 – Brooklyn, NY – Baby’s All Right
October 6 – Washington, DC – Songbyrd Music House
October 8 – Nashville, TN – Cannery Hall: Row One Stage
October 9 – Atlanta, GA – Purgatory At The Masquerade
October 11 – Dallas, TX – TX Tea Room
October 12 – San Antonio, TX – Paper Tiger
October 14 – Denver, CO – Larimer Lounge
October 17 – San Francisco, CA – Brick & Mortar Music Hall
October 20 – West Hollywood, CA – The Roxy Theatre
November 11 – Paris, France – Elysee Montmartre ^
November 12 – Le Bataclan – Paris, France ^
November 14 – Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg – Rockhal ^
November 15 – Cologne, Germany – Palladium ^
November 16 – Zurich, Switzerland – X-Tra ^
November 18 – Barcelona, Spain – Sala Apolo ^
November 20 – Milan, Italy – Fabrique ^
November 22 – Prague, Czech Republic – SaSaZu ^
November 23 – Warsaw, Poland – Progresja ^
November 25 – Hamburg, Germany – Docks ^
November 26 – Berlin, Germany – Huxleys Neue Welt ^
November 29- Stockholm, Sweden – Fallan ^
November 30 – Oslo, Norway – Rockefeller Music Hall ^
December 1 – Copenhagen, Denmark – Vega ^
December 3 – Brussels, Belgium – La Madeleine ^
December 5 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Melkweg ^
December 6 – Berlin, Germany – Huxleys Neue Welt ^
December 7 – Amsterdam, Netherlands – Melkweg ^
December 10 – Edinburgh, UK – Edinburgh Corn Exchange ^
December 12 – Manchester, UK – O2 Victoria Warehouse ^
December 13 – Birmingham, UK – O2 Academy ^
December 14 – London, UK – O2 Academy Brixton ^
^ supporting Artemas
Ella Boh – A MiLLiON DAGGERS – (Official Music Video)
Ella Boh Links:
Official: https://ellaboh.net/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ellabboh
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ellaboh/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ellaboh