I have never been so thankful for the pink glitter remnants that have stuck themselves onto my face, and I have never been so grateful for the soreness on calves that ached with each step. Both are a reminder of a pivotal event of my teenage years. On Oct. 10, my life changed when I attended the first Pasadena stop on Chappell Roan’s “Visions of Damsels and Other Dangerous Things” tour at Brookside at the Rose Bowl with my closest friends.
As an avid concert goer, I was surprised at how different Chappell Roan’s concert felt from most shows. Instead of a usual arena or indoor setup, the event took place on the expansive 36-hole golf course that is Brookside. The stage was surrounded by what felt like neverending green hills and wide stretches of turf that allowed people to sit, dance and move freely. All of my preexisting crowd worries disappeared as the space felt open and breathable.
Following a whole seven hours of waiting in the LA heat, I figured that throughout Chappell Roan’s set, I would be either exhausted or irritated about the outcome of the night. However, the concert was so incredibly beautiful that I would not have wanted to have it any other way.
After two hours of sitting in a nearby parking lot, the crowd was let into the venue. I thought that the crowd would rush to the front, but it was low-stress and avoided being too overwhelming. Though it felt like me and my friends were on the younger side of the crowd, we visually looked no different, with the common denominators being body glitter and sequin-embellished outfits.
The first opener consisted of a DJ set with local drag artists Kyra Jete and Calypso Jete Balmann. Most of the crowd behind my group of friends had not arrived yet, primarily because of the various entertainment options displayed at the front of the venue. There were photo-ops, merch stands, a bar and a giant pink pony in the middle of it all.
As more fans trickled in, the second opener, famous drag queen Trixie Mattel, began her DJ set. Out of three openers, she was by far my favorite. She brought her signature blend of humor and camp to her set. “Give it up for Miss Chappell Roan. She got the homosexuals out here in a field honey, in a field,” Mattel said. Growing up watching both “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and “Trixie and Katya,” it felt like the perfect beginning to a night full of both wistful nostalgia and pure excitement.
Nothing could have prepared me for the sheer joy I felt during 9:15-11:00 p.m. During her opening song “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl,” I could feel myself tearing up. It is not a particularly sad song by any means, but I heard my past and my identity with me in every lyric.
My favorite sector of the night was when she played her song “Coffee.” Prior to it, she delivered a very heartfelt speech, where she expressed just how much she loved Los Angeles and how nervous she was to play there. It was particularly refreshing to see an artist be that open and raw with their audience and it made the experience feel very intimate, despite the crowd of 40,000 people.
She ended with her cult classic “Pink Pony Club,” a song about a woman moving to Southern California and taking a job as a dancer at a gay club in Hollywood. Although sometimes I get frustrated by the constant radio repeats, this specific playing of the song, spinning around in a circle with all of my best friends, is one that will stay in my memories forever.
I do not think it was seeing one of my favorite artists that particularly left an imprint on me, but a kaleidoscopic blend of both the people I saw the concert with and feeling seen within the sea of other LGBTQ+ individuals. Going to this concert made me realize the importance of shared spaces where people can exist without feeling the need to shrink themselves and expression is not seen as an outlier, but as the norm.