Best Friends & Big Hopes: Beabadoobee Live In Leeds

Blank white tapestry sheets hang loosely, fluttering in the wake of a packed 02 academy. Beabadoobee needs no sign, no moniker to represent herself, hundreds have been queuing all day in the grey drizzle for just a glimpse of her. For when Beabadoobee graced the stage, the hush of respect that befell the whole room was unlike anything I’d experienced in quite some time. 

She loves you. You can feel it even as she gazes across a crowd of thousands. Or you think so anyway. Since you’d definitely be best friends of course! You have so much in common after all, don’t you? And she’s funny, and sweet, just like you, my slightly unstable reader. Beabadoobee’s crowd of best friends revered her, that’s undoubtable, but perhaps we can open up a parasocial relationship conversation off the back of this. 

After some poetically written lonely years of touring for Beatrice Laus, it appears she’s found a love for live performance & is lighting up venues up and down the UK. Beabadoobee is the grassroots acoustic sweetheart, in only a couple of years playing Key Club to now packing out 02 Academy. As much as I’d like to say she’s outgrowing these venues, after all, she’s now got over 20M monthly Spotify listeners and the queue for the show was building all day long, I’m glad Bea hasn’t yet hit the arenas. She’s certainly got the sound and fanbase to do so. But, her breathy vocals and slight, lilting tone is one that feels like it could blow away with the gentlest hush, and one that is so well suited to an intimate venue. As an audience we gazed, captivated, on her slower tracks ‘Ever Seen’ and ‘Post’ I could feel myself grounded to stillness, under the guise of an irrational fear that we may scare her off. Like a mirage or a doe in the woods, Beabadoobee has a presence that can only be described as ethereal or fae-like. Despite her slightly shy nature on stage, she commands the gravitas and control of space with ease that every screaming frontman literally begs for.

For this tour and despite her tranquility, Beabadoobee has captured a cool poise. She’s shaken her nerves, obviously reflective of This Is How Tomorrow Moves, her new album released this year, and she is taking strides in both herself and her career. Tangling her sound further into an eclectic mix of bossa nova, shoe gaze, and now fuzzy rock, Bea is feeding into more genres than I can hope to define. Standout track from this 3rd album ‘Real Man’ is a true marvel live. This is my formal apology to my housemates, boyfriend & workmates who have had to listen to me humming the pre-chorus endlessly on a loop for days on end. It seems it hasn’t wormed its way into just my head, as the crowd bobbed along & nearly drowned out the band for a mid-set dancealong. 

Beabadoobee has created a whole entire new niche of irresistible indie-pop. I hate to justify him ever, but Matty Healy’s best musical decision lies in signing Beatrice * surname to Dirty Hit at just 17. Now 24, Beabadoobee is facing the loneliness that comes with fame, and everyone who owns an acoustic guitar thinks that they know her in a completely unique way than anyone else who has ever listened to her ever. Happy to report, however, that Bea’s exploration into her own agency has resulted in a truly beautiful 3rd album. Dare I say her best work to date? Actually, yes I happily do. It’s fun, it’s light and genuinely refreshing to hear & she performed it with so much soul and happiness she quite literally glowed. 

As the white sheet finally fell during lead single ‘Beaches’ minds were lost, consciousness altered & maybe I’m a tad dramatic but in my defence, it was really cool. Revealing a wall of lingering plants, tangled and breathing along to the music, Beabadoobee had the stage, and us all in the palm of her hand. Unsurprised & welcomed. She was giddy with excitement, gushing about her tour & her relief to return home the next day. A sight to behold, and once she floated off stage for the encore, her fans knit themselves together, tightly and happily sighing as she returned back to the stage for ‘Coming Home’. Aptly finishing on ‘See You Soon’, its clear that Beabadoobee will absolutely be back, and accelerating at her rate alongside her truly unique talent, stardom awaits for her.

Words by Millie Cain.