LIVE REVIEW + PHOTOS: Blondshell in Boston, MA (06.19.25)
Indie-rock artist Blondshell made her headlining debut at Boston’s Royale on a steamy Thursday night in the city. Fresh off the release of her highly acclaimed sophomore album, If You Asked for a Picture, the aptly titled North American “If You Asked for a Tour” was an instant sell-out. Originally slated to play the smaller Sinclair in Cambridge, her upgrade to the Royale still barely contained the endless hordes of fans.
Sabrina Teitelbaum—who performs under the moniker Blondshell— was last in the city for a set at 2024’s Boston Calling Music Festival, and previously when opening for Liz Phair. With two albums under her belt, it’s surprising she had yet to play a headlining show in Boston, though the anticipation surely made it worth the wait.
Opening band Daffo kicked off their first night on the tour with an impressive set that engaged eager fans. Despite evident first show nerves, they quickly snapped out of it and fell into rhythm with the music and the well-receiving crowd. Their sound, a mix of Big Thief meets Wednesday, was the perfect fit for a fan base that embraces the diverse spectrum of indie and alternative sounds.
Blondshell took the stage promptly at 9 pm, to a loud wail from the crowd. Opening with “23’s A Baby,” the third single off the new album, was a surprising yet smart choice: it’s an inviting retro-pop number that sways with an uptempo beat and impossibly catchy chorus. With the sway of her hips and carefree nature as she strutted around the stage, it was Teitelbaum’s comfortable and confident stage presence that was initially striking. Her growth as an artist over the past year was clearly evident in her movements and ease, exuding the cool-girl swagger of an artist who has come into her own.
“Toy” followed next, another track off her latest LP that is quickly earning its place as a top contender. It was her third song, however, that truly made the venue burst to life. “Docket,” last year’s collaboration with Bully, is a fan-favorite pop-rock banger that swells with self-deprecating awareness and earnestly raw lyrics. Along the barricade, fans screamed each word, bent over with the intensity of the track.
Tackling themes of complex familial dynamics, unhealthy patterns, toxic relationships, and an overarching angst reminiscent of ’90s alt-heroines (think: Alanis Morissette and Fiona Apple), Blondshell wields her demons as a pivotal anecdote. Her “mommy issues” are explored in a narrative that allows for ample reflection and generosity, often blending into her own personal struggles or relationship woes. Even when singing some of the darkest and most comically fervent lyrics, her cool demeanor doesn’t break.
Over wailing guitars and a masterful sense of melody, Blondshell sings of shamelessly seeking validation through the male gaze. During “Sepsis,” she grinned at the crowd, who screamed the self-inflicting lyrics as if it were their own story to tell. While her tones are predominantly dark and brooding, there is a liveliness that breaks through her inventive structures and undeniable hooks. One of Blondshell’s greatest strengths? Dynamic bridges that cap off each song with a layered complexity and infectious, often thought-provoking, change in structure. This resulted in some of the show’s highest points, as the crowd cheered along, enraptured and under Teitelbaum’s spell.
There are no frills to a Blondshell show. With only a simple backdrop cast behind them, Sabrina and her band are as organic as it gets. She limits the chatter between tracks, if only to add some witty comment with her dry sense of humor, or to introduce some of her newer tracks that fans have only been acquainted with for a few weeks. However, that doesn’t stop them from belting each and every lyric that is already ingrained into the brain.
In one of her few addresses to the crowd, she pointed to her wire frames and said, “I wore my glasses so I could see you tonight. I’ve never done that before. I heard Boston is beautiful. There’s just something about a Boston crowd.” Well, Sabrina, I wore my contacts for you.
Throughout the set, tracks like “Change” and “Thumbtack” showcased her controlled vocals, which only seem to be getting stronger. Her voice falls in a naturally deep register, yet doesn’t prohibit her from reaching a high head voice in songs like “Event of a Fire” or “Olympus.” “T&A” off the new record has quickly become a Blondshell staple and marked another highlight of the night, if not for an excuse to scream the title’s acronyms.
Of her newer material, each song truly sounded even better in a live setting. Joined by touring bandmates Kerri Stewart (guitar), Maia Nelson (bass), Anna Crane (drums), and Ray Libby of Bad Suns on guitar, the unit was solid and synchronous in their instrumentation. With little soloing, they opted for crisp and precise execution, up until the allotted explosions of “He Wants Me,” “Kiss City,” and “Salad” — a trifecta of alt-rock perfection.
I won’t hide my disappointment that she opted out of playing “Two Times,” the second single off the new LP and an opportunity for a soft acoustic moment, with hints of a cappella that would showcase her voice in a new light. Instead, Blondshell performed an unreleased song titled “Berlin TV Tower” that she stated was about “feeling like you don’t have the right to start over whenever you want”. Later, and to no surprise, she pulled out her fresh cover of Addison Rae’s “Diet Pepsi,” spun with her own alternative flair. While the crowd loved it, I would have much preferred another cut off her record — “What’s Fair,” another single that failed to make the set and would have killed live. (I was so ready to scream the chorus’s gnarling “ahhhs”).
The soaring “Kiss City” concluded the main set in a rush of euphoria. After soon returning to the stage for the encore, Teitelbaum first pulled out her diary, unwilling to let the show end without imparting an important message. The date, June 19th, coincided with Juneteenth, a federal holiday commemorating the emancipation of enslaved people in the US.
“I feel indebted to black artists who have shaped culture both with and without credit for hundreds of years,” she began. “There would be absolutely no pop music and certainly no rock and roll without generations and generations of art made by black musicians in America. If you’re a white person fighting for change, I hope your resistance includes looking into predominantly white spaces that you are a part of: spaces such as the genre of indie rock. I think indie rock has a really bad whiteness problem. And I think that is on white people to solve and take actionable steps towards fixing. I think it’s really important to name it, so I’m naming it here in front of you because I have the microphone right now. If your feminism is just for you and your friends, it’s not actually feminism. And now more than ever, I want to acknowledge that nobody is illegal on stolen land.”
Met with a deafening roar of approving cheers, the band launched back into the music. “Event of a Fire” is a rare ballad from the artist, and recounts the tale of a small fire at the Holiday Inn she stayed at last winter in Boston. In a sleep-deprived daze, she broke the cardinal rule of fire safety and turned that recklessness into a larger metaphor. In a recent interview, she admitted, “I took the elevator down, which is so bad, but it was the middle of the night and I wasn’t thinking. And that stuck in my mind, and I wrote the song a while later on tour.” Live, the song hung heavy in the air, and stunned in a vulnerable showcasing of raw emotion. With pristine vocals and flourishing instrumentation, not a sound could be heard from the transfixed crowd.
Lastly, the rapturous “Salad” detonated as the band’s most intense and satisfactory song of the night. Rolling through each chorus and shout of murderous rage, Blondshell excels in this specific type of song. The bend and break of structure, before the bridge explodes with violent declarations, “Gonna get big, gonna get big/ I’m so scary, I can’t stop having visions of following him/ Gonna make it hurt, gonna make it hurt” emphasized the draw of Blondshell’s sound and ended the show with a bang.
The nearly perfect set satiated fans’ long-awaited desire for a headline show and reinforced the demand for the band to return soon. With the rapid incline Blondshell is riding, an extension of the tour would be no surprise, and certainly welcomed by New Englanders.
Photos – Blondshell at Royale in Boston, MA on June 19th:
