Marie Ulven Ringheim – aka Girl In Red – is really keen that we know she’s not drunk. The singer songwriter has sold out two nights at the Barrowland Ballroom and, on this, the second night, she’s giddy on the elixir of music alone. Running around the stage with boundless energy and chatting to the audience as if we are all new best friends.
Tonight’s crowd has already been warmed up by top tier support, Nieve Ella – whose sugar-dusted indie rock boasts wandering guitar hooks and a great sense of dynamics that often separates the wheat from the chaff when it comes to 90s/00s-sounding lad bands.
She’s already shared bills with the likes of Kings of Leon, The Kooks and The Courteeners, and a good chunk of the Barras audience already know the words to a lot of her songs.
Girl In Red fittingly starts her set bathed in red light. Bounding around the stage to ‘Doing It Again Baby’, her energy level rarely wavers in her 90-minute set.
Her catchy and confessional tunes traverse all sorts of sub-genres of pop, indie and rock. From the New Order-ish ‘bad idea!’, to the plinky-plonky saccharine of ‘Too Much’ and ‘I’m Back’, via the Bloc Party-ish ‘You Stupid Bitch’. On ‘Serotonin’ she even sort-of raps, in the kind of way that Twenty One Pilots like to.
She has cited Taylor Swift as an influence – and having opened at a few Eras Tour shows in 2023 Swift has described Girl In Red as ‘spectacular’. But it’s only in the tiniest little moments and inflections that the two sound anywhere alike. (A collaboration could be really excellent, though!)
In its recorded form, ‘You Need Me Now?’ features Sabrina Carpenter. Live, Ulven asks the crowd to fill in on the ‘Espresso’ singer’s verse.
Songs that seem quiet and unassuming on record, like ‘girls’ and ‘i wanna be your girlfriend’, are huge moments for the joyous crowd due to their viral success. The party vibes are strong throughout the set, but peak during the latter when Ulven bounds down into the crowd to initiate a wall of death. It’s funny to see how little space a sold out crowd takes up when you squeeze them all together(!).
Between tunes, Ulven talks excitedly about her love of Scotland; explains that she bought pretty much all of tonight’s outfit in a souvenir shop, including a tartan hat that she asks her tour manager to bring out. She talks too of her experiences in a Scottish pub, and how drunk-but-friendly the clientele were.
In a room full of enthusiastic kindred spirits, Girl In Red puts on a big, exciting and heartfelt show full of feelings and fun. Even bigger sold out shows absolutely beckon.