It’s been six years since we last saw Aurora grace the stage in Melbourne, and we couldn’t have been more excited for her anticipated return. The Norwegian singer, songwriter, producer and beam of sunshine performed at the Palais Theatre; a dream location for her haunting vocals and atmospheric production. Performing to a sold-out crowd on a Thursday night, her adoring fans piled into the beautiful theatre ready to witness the magic once again.
Supporting Aurora on The Gods We Can Touch Australia Tour was Melbourne’s own Blusher. The three-piece supergroup consisting of Miranda Ward, Lauren Coutts and Jade Ingvarson-Favretto (AKA Jade Alice) formed in late 2021, and self-describe as ‘angry sparkly pop chaos’. Their set was everything that we personally love about dream pop – each band member showcasing their incredible range on lead vocals, dancing in synchronisation and even throwing in a MGMT cover. The band’s two big hits Dead End and Softly Spoken had the crowd on their feet for parts of the support act, and we thoroughly enjoyed some of their unreleased tracks, including Backbone and Hurricane Chaser. It felt special to see the band on their first-ever tour together, and we cannot wait to see what’s next for Blusher.
Before long, it was time for the Norwegian songstress to join her fans with the band in tow. Performing through the shadows, she opened with two tracks from her latest album The Gods We Can Touch, with strong-opener Heathens and Blood in the Wine. Aurora’s almost other-worldly vocals and poetic lyrics had the crowd stunned, and only when Aurora addresses the crowd do we come back to Earth. Addressing the screaming crowd, Aurora exclaims, ‘Oh my god, hello! How lovely you are. Thank you so much for just being how you are – this room is so beautiful’ – taking time to acknowledge how special it is to play so far away from home and how grateful they were to have an audience of adoring fans on the other side of the world.
Drawing from her albums Infections of a Different Kind (Step I) and A Different Kind of Human (Step II), Aurora described her time on stage as feeling the love of all the people who have played here before. In the next part of the set, she took time to describe the importance of each song or what she was thinking about in each performance. Infections of a Different Kind is about how we choose to use our power. The River is written about people holding back emotions because of the stigma about being open. All is Soft Inside is dedicated to the emotional pain of being human. Apple Tree is a song about how it’s our job to save the world, it’s in our hands and it’s important to make the world a better place to live – dedicated to those who don’t live in the world they deserve right now. Closing out this part of the set with Queendom, while clutching a rainbow flag, the crowd roared, clapped along and belted out the chorus. Describing her journey of discovering she was bi, Aurora addressed the crowd to tell them ‘you know you’re welcome here. The whole point of you is to be different to everyone else’.
Just when you thought you couldn’t possibly feel any more emotions, Aurora hits you with Exist for Love and A Potion For Love – two of the most beautiful songs from her new album, which had even Aurora all teary and emotional. The final portion of the set had a good mix of throwback songs that had us falling in love for the first time, from All My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend with Runaway and Running With the Wolves, as well as beloved tracks A Dangerous Thing, Churchyard, Daydreamer and the incredibly energetic hit The Seed. Thanking the audience for being so wonderful and generous, Aurora closed out by telling the audience to compliment a stranger every day.
The encore was bittersweet, in that we never wanted the concert to end. Telling the audience, ‘my favourite thing about this room is it’s full of weird people who are perfect’, Aurora and band finished with our favourite song Cure for Me and Giving In to the Love. Walking out of the theatre, we heard an audience member exclaim, ‘I feel like I was on stage with her the whole time’, and as we consider all of the important items Aurora sings about regarding nature, identity and human emotion, we are thankful for all the laughing, crying and dancing we’ve witnessed tonight and hope that Aurora will be back soon.