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At seven pm on September 14th, you would not believe the number of people that fit inside downtown Detroit's tiny, but charming El Club. The line was wrapped around the entire building and even bled into neighboring streets. Around four hundred people were there to see one person: Lizzy McAlpine. 

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McAlpine is an up-and-coming artist who recently became popular on TikTok. Beginning in 2020, she released her first album, Give Me A Minute, but did not tour due to the pandemic. On April 8th, 2022, however, she released her second album Five Seconds Flat, and announced her first headline tour. Along with this, she introduced her opener Carol Ades, a 26-year-old singer who gained popularity in 2021. While Ades’ song lyrics were not my favorite, she was a great opening act nonetheless with her strong voice and impressive guitar player. 

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To say I was a fan of Five Seconds Flat before the tour is an understatement; my Spotify statistics can attest to how much I’ve listened to it since its release. What’s really amazing is the story the album tells. As McAlpine suggests, when listening to the album for the first time, play the songs in order and you’ll hear her life story of the last few years.

 

While she did not perform every song from her newest album, seeing Five Seconds Flat in concert was so surreal. I had been listening to this album on repeat for months and I finally had an opportunity  to see it live. The set list was as follows: 

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1. an ego thing 

2. Over-the-Ocean-Call (Andrew)

3. all my ghosts 

4. firearm 

5. reckless driving 

6. doomsday 

7. To the Mountains 

8. called you again 

9. ceilings 

10. Emma (unreleased) 

11. Angelina

12. Apple Pie 

13. erase me 

14. Pancakes for Dinner 

15. Come Back Down (unreleased) 

16. orange show speedway 

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“An ego thing” was the perfect song to start out with, even in the sweaty, pink and blue room, everyone was so ecstatic. This song illustrates the process of knowing you are getting broken up with, but being powerless to do anything about it. The song amplified all the energy in the room, which continued with McAlpine’s performance of “Over-the-Ocean-Call''. She did not perform the second part of the song (Andrew), which was a good choice for the start of her set as the energy would have been too low. McAlpine propelled the high energy with her song choices, and the crowd was able to keep the room alive every step of the way. The next four songs, “all my ghosts”, “fireharm”, “reckless driving”, and doomsday, were percussion-heavy and perfectly held up the energy of the room. Of course, the most popular song was “ceilings”, as it has recently been discovered on TikTok, introducing many to McAlpine as an artist. The crowd screamed along to this song, paying special attention  to the lyric “and the funny thing is I would’ve married you, if you had stuck around.” The pain of this lyric broke hearts as the audience sang louder and louder.

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“Angelina” was hands down the star of the show. Lizzy McAlpine sounds exactly the same on recordings as she does in person, an impressive talent in musicians nowadays. This song is simple in terms of melody, but McAlpine’s soft and powerful voice makes it perfectly tragic. “Angelina” tells the story of hoping for marriage with someone, but instead ending up alone. Not only are the lyrics heartbreaking, but this song contains one of the most beautiful instrumentals I have ever heard. On the recording, there is a heart wrenching trumpet solo, which her bassist Kelly played live at the concert. During the bass solo, the entire audience was in absolute awe, almost moved to tears. I hadn’t heard anything more devastatingly alluring.

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“Orange show speedway”, a song about falling in love young and realizing how fast life moves, ended the show marvelously. Each member of the crowd was given an orange slip of paper by a random man in the line before the concert. Each person held their flashlights up with their respective orange slip of paper, and McAlpine even commented “You guys are so creative!” You could almost believe the sun was right there in the room. It was a perfect ending to a great performance. 

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Lizzy McAlpine is still going on her Five Seconds Flat tour, with her next few concerts in New York, Cambridge, and Philadelphia. I would highly suggest going to see her before she becomes world famous (and take me with you ;)).