Ethereal Girlpuppy Brings Melancholic Sweetness to LA

After the release of sophomore record Sweetness in March, Atlanta-based indie rock artist Girlpuppy embarked on a short US tour, with the last stop on May 8th at The Moroccan Lounge in Los Angeles before heading out for her UK tour.

The small venue has a very intimate vibe, which honestly is a perfect fit for the pure but raw music by Girlpuppy’s Becca Harvey. The evening starts with supporting sets from Jackie Hayes and Sedona, both great fits for a night of unpolished feminine energy. Jackie Hayes recently decided to start using a new stage name as Astrid Pierce, after being compared to How To Train Your Dragon’s Astrid a couple times (although she also had more Emily Browning’s Violet Baudelaire vibes). The two support acts both have a very distinct style, with both women having very raw and emotional songs with a really personal touch to it.

Girlpuppy gets introduced by Whitmer Thomas as “Sabrina Carpenter rolled in dirt for an hour,” among other things, but none of them ring true when you see her walk up on stage in her white flowy dress. She plays the record Sweetness from start to finish, and the story told through the ten songs feels really balanced and cohesive through the set, without becoming boring. Starting with a positive and dreamy vibe, the album, and the concert with it, progresses into an emotional and gloomy mood. Becca has a very tender/soft voice, which makes the raw and unrefined moments all that more powerful.

Whitmer Thomas comes back up on stage by the end of the set, to perform his song “Best Love Song Ever Wrote,” a soft and whimsical duet between him and Girlpuppy, before she, as she says so herself, goes through the entire “encore thing” where she leaves the stage, the crowd chants “we want more” and comes back for a couple more songs. “I Miss When I Smelled Like You” and “Surprise Me” are two songs that seem to be the most popular of her catalog so far, and they do get the biggest response from the audience as well. Even though “Surprise Me” is a slow song, it somehow fits well as a closing number, leaving everyone in the audience feeling a sense of melancholy when they leave the venue.

The dreamy Sweetness tour will make its way to the United Kingdom soon, starting May 16th in Brighton, England. Tickets for the UK tour can be found on https://girlpuppymusic.com/tour.