On a steamy summer night among famous headstones, Suki Waterhouse transformed the Fairbanks Lawn at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery into the titular Loveland of her new album. On July 23, four years after opening for Father John Misty at this same venue, the self-proclaimed “Model, Actress, Whatever” was a folk pop star in the Laurel Canyon tradition, with a deep bench of genre-bending influences and a fiery backup band.
First up, Charlotte Lawrence opened while the sky over LA was still a pale cloudless blue. Playing songs from her new album Somewhere, Lawrence had Gracie Abrams’ whispery vibe and an Olivia Rodrigo-like penchant for big, crunchy guitars and scream-sung hooks. An LA native herself, she seemed perfectly comfortable at one of LA’s most iconic venues, even as she confessed to being “a little nervous to do this,” as she took to the keys for a stripped-down “Bodybag.” She’ll be headlining venues like this in no time. The standout was a surprise cover of the Cranberries’ “Zombie,” which made it clear that, while Lawrence can write a nice tune, there are good songs, and then there are Cranberries songs.
At 8:30, as dusk fell upon the visible Netflix building up the hill, the cemetery entered the realm of Loveland. Pink and orange curtains transformed the stage into a four-poster bed, with a massive heart-shaped disco ball in the back, complete with ventricles and a lock waiting to be opened by the right key. Cupid’s arrows stuck out of the stage, and the grand piano, and the lights dimmed as “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” played from the sound system over the headstones – among which, incidentally, is Judy Garland’s final resting place (Toto the dog’s too).
Right away, Suki, dressed in a fluffy white robe and pajamas, cranked up the volume with a rousing “Supersad,” showing off a tighter, louder sound than her outing two years ago at the Greek Theater in support of Memoir of a Sparklemuffin. The drums on Supersad were Oasis-Morning-Glory-level Mega. From here, she played mostly songs from her new studio effort, but the Sparklemuffin tracks she chose were a perfect fit with her Loveland ethos. “OMG” was a highlight, played heavier than on the record.
After the horn-assisted banger, “Any Man,” she addressed the audience, “We’ve entered Loveland, a place for lovers and weirdos and everything in between.” Indeed, the whole show had a coherent, conceptual feel of riding through a tunnel of love. It’s not easy to make every track feel of a piece when her genre influences are so varied – from singer-songwriter to Britpop to jazzy funk – but they are all unified by being pure Suki.
Then she and band swaggered into Loveland’s opener, “Back in Love,” exuding a lounge vibe with the cool of contemporary Arctic Monkeys with a shot of adrenaline. “Jukebox” was the night’s snoozer, a little too much winking doo-wop to really suck in the crowd, but she made up for it with “My Fun” – which is such a bop you wouldn’t be shocked if the corpses crawled out of their graves and started boogying – and “Happy With It,” with its funky breakdown and fuzzy guitar solo.
She only played two songs from the pre-Sparklemuffin era, her first big hits “Moves” and “Johanna,” which still animated the audience like no other songs. From there, she took to the grand piano for “Notting Hill,” her song that is most indebted to Oasis – even the guitar solo matched “Don’t Look Back in Anger” to a T. And then she and the band breezily sped through the California teenage punk of “18,” a bonus track from Loveland that is catchy enough to be a lead single, and then the slinky RnB number “When I Get Drunk (I Want You Boy)”, which necessitated a costume change into pink ruffles, and “Good Looking,” made more cinematic by the wind machine blowing her hair back.
At her last show at the Greek, she described “Think Twice” as her country song, and the band has taken this to heart, infusing the track with some southern-fried slide guitar. But they quickly shed the south for psychedelia on “Dream Woman,” a massive dreamy hook like Ultraviolence-era Lana Del Rey covering “The Dog Days Are Over.”
She closed the main set with “Puppy Dog Eyes,” and told the audience, by way of explanation, “I was quite mardy when I wrote this one.” Then of course, she had to explain to the LA crowd what “mardy” means. No one cared, though; they were too busy grooving.
Opening the encore with the final track of Loveland, “Weirdo,” she brought out a surprise guest – whom she called her friend, her neighbor, and fellow weirdo – Beck. He looked a bit lost, like he was just in the neighborhood and got pulled onstage. He held Suki’s hand and harmonized about half a verse so quietly you could barely hear him, and then he wandered back offstage, leaving the audience to wonder if they’d dreamed the whole thing. It was a strange way to end the show, but maybe that’s just why it worked – it was a genuine “weirdo” move.
The finale was the sweeping anthem, “To Love,” the closer from Sparklemuffin, and one of the best moments of the whole night. “How lucky we are…. To love to love to love” – the crowd sang along in agreement, and all hands were raised to the Hollywood sky.
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