Holly Humberstone Concert Review: Rising Indie Star Returns to Boston | Arts | The Harvard Crimson

Holly Humberstone, a British songwriter and 2022 recipient of the celebrated “Rising Star” BRIT Award, returned to Boston on Could 3 because the opening act for Olivia Rodrigo’s bought out, highly-anticipated Bitter Tour. Humberstone visited Boston for the primary time this previous March because the opener for Woman in Crimson’s nationwide tour, which wrapped up in April. However now, after touring the northeast with Rodrigo from New York to Ontario and again right down to Massachusetts for months within the spring, Humberstone’s second ever look within the metropolis cements her standing as some of the thrilling indie artists to look at. For sure, her intimate efficiency on the brand-new Roadrunner stage garnered a really heat welcome.

The pop artist carried out her latest single “Sleep Tight,” which was launched simply 4 days previous to the present. The track is about nostalgia and was aptly impressed by the brand new sense of freedom skilled on the finish of the Covid-19 lockdown. “I wrote the track in the course of the first summer time out of lockdown which was a reasonably loopy time for my mates and me,” Humberstone had informed Rolling Stone’s Tomás Mier in late April.

On stage, Humberstone saved it each easy and intimate. She took the stage solo, accompanied solely by her guitar, keyboard, and an enormous black tapestry coated in signatories as a backdrop. Her songs discover their power within the tales they inform about particular experiences and other people in her life. And earlier than every monitor she shared a brief preamble about these inspirations. “Deep Finish,” as an example, which was the fifth in her setlist, was written for her sister who struggles together with her psychological well being. “I all the time discover it actually onerous to look at somebody that I care about a lot battle and never know methods to assist,” she mentioned to her Boston viewers. “I wrote her a track saying I don’t actually perceive what you’re going via, however I really like you and I’m right here for you.”

Her subsequent monitor within the set was her present primary Spotify hit: “London Is Lonely.” This track explains her expertise shifting from her small hometown to the town, forsaking her mates and three sisters. “So many individuals, it is really easy to get misplaced generally / And this winter is happening too lengthy / Although it do not snow right here, it stays fairly chilly and I miss your heat,” Humberstone sings. As her voice carries over the track’s melody, she effortlessly narrates her expertise and that of the numerous college students in her viewers who had moved from their temperate cities, stuffed with family members, to dwell within the Boston chill.

Humberstone then carried out “Scarlett,” a track for her greatest good friend who was going via a tough break up. “It actually upset me to see her feeling garbage about herself,” the artist mentioned, making a welcoming air of friendship that surrounded her and the hundreds of individuals packed into the huge music venue, “so I wrote her a track to attempt to make her really feel higher.” The candor she succeeded in fostering between her and the viewers was evident all through her efficiency, exemplifying her simple capability to maneuver her followers via her expertly produced tracks.

With the Bitter Tour’s conclusion on Could 25, Humberstone has plans to hit the highway once more in November, this time as a headliner, on her recently-announced Sleep Tight Tour.

—Workers author Anaiah B. Thomas will be reached at anaiah.thomas@thecrimson.com