The chronically online may know that for a time, asking if someone listened to girl in red was a modern equivalent to the 1980s’ “I’m a friend of Dorothy” slang, a way to signal one’s queerness without saying it outright.
Marie Ulven Ringheim, the queer Norwegian bedroom-pop singer-songwriter better known as girl in red, rose to fame on the internet with bubble grunge songs like “we fell in love in october,” “summer depression” and “i wanna be your girlfriend.”
Her most recent album, “if i could make it go quiet,” veers into the direction of a breakup record, filled with angst and heartbreak compared to the saccharine sapphic love songs of previous works. Still, this Monday night at First Ave was anything but low-energy.
Ringheim started with a literal headbanger, jogging onto the stage, shouting “Whaddup!” and immediately kicking off “You Stupid Bitch,” rife with snappy guitar licks and dance-worthy melody. Her vocals at times verged into screams for this soft grunge tune, and she flipped her long, wavy hair around with the band as the song came to its peak.
The energy only went up from there as Ringheim bounced around in her baggy gray tee, black jeans and black Hoka One One’s, a chunky orthopedic sneaker.
“A lot of my music was put out in 2018, a lot of lo-fi, bedroom pop shit, and I love it, but that’s not what my live shows are like,” she told the space-bun, grandpa sweater, Dickies-wearing audience.
Ringheim walked the line between slow, indie-girl crooning and upbeat pop with “girls,” a ballad about women-loving-women, as she would continue to do throughout the entirety of the show. The crowd matched her seemingly endless amount of vigor as she managed to simultaneously skip jump around the stage, play guitar and sing without missing a beat.
Baby hairs curling away from her face with perspiration, she transitioned to a slower verse. “No, this is not a phase, or a coming of age; this will never change,” she sang in harmony with the audience, many holding up pride flags and wiping away tears.
“We’re just powering through all of the depressive songs for a bit, it’s all part of a grand master plan so don’t worry about that,” Ringheim said to the crowd coyly after singing two more utterly soul-ripping ballads: “i’ll die anyway.” and “.”
Next, a simple riff sent the audience into uproar as Ringheim began “we fell in love in october.”
Orange and red strobes gently cascaded on and off, the bass utterly quaking against her
bare vocals. Once again, she started with her signature ethereal softness before transitioning into something like grunge and ramping up the energy.
Sporting a pair of novelty sunglasses a crowd member tossed on stage, Ringheim gently plucked “I’ll Call You Mine” under a lone stage light. The shadow of her guitar neck cast upon the side of the venue as audience members young and old swayed romantically.
After a lovably botched, impromptu rendition of the Beatles’ “Blackbird” riff and a mildly concerning anecdote about pretending to drown as a child to scare her mom, Ringheim powered through “hornylovesickmess” and “Serotonin,” both from her latest album, with finesse and the invigorating passion that can only come straight from the heart.
“At the girl in red concerts, we lose our shit,” Ringheim said. “The low point was the acoustic one, and from there on, it shall only go upwards!”
If that was the low point, “bad idea!” was the show’s climax. The audience screamed its lyrics at the top of their lungs, operating as an entity all on its own as the music washed over them. Ringheim crowd-surfed as the song continued, still singing the chorus while a mass of hands held her aloft.
2019’s “dead girl in the pool.” followed, continuing in the vein of Gen Z’s dark humor with a poppy melody and lyrics about depersonalization. The crowd bounced to the upbeat, rapid tune as Ringheim belted the chorus.
Scatterbrained and lovable, Ringheim giggles that she’s a terrible storyteller after attempting to spotlight a fan who recently had her three-year anniversary with her girlfriend and playing a portion of “watch you sleep.,” one of the couple’s favorite songs.
As the night came to a close, we made our way to the back of the venue for the last song, and had the unfortunate timing to witness a man vomit over a staircase railing from several feet above as Ringheim wrapped up a spirited rendition of “i wanna be your girlfriend.”
Still, the only thing on my mind on the drive home was Ringheim’s stellar showmanship and her command over the audience, and the unpleasant sounds were replaced with a beautiful queer melody.
