Olivia Rodrigo’s Unraveled Tour makes a persuasive case for her as a rock performer as much as a pop star. At Value City Arena in Columbus, Ohio, the loudest statement came from the music itself: eight high-energy songs to open the show, driven by pounding drums, distorted guitars and flashes of new wave. The production had its pop signatures, from costume changes to video interludes, but Rodrigo and her band carried the night without choreography or lip-syncing.
A set built around the band
The contrast between roaring guitars and vulnerable ballads shaped Rodrigo’s earlier GUTS tour. This time, those modes arrived in longer runs, giving the concert a clearer sense of momentum. The opening stretch moved through “drop dead,” “u + me = <3,” “so american” and “good 4 u” before the set eventually made room for a quieter piano sequence.
There were still plenty of visual cues to keep the arena show moving. Fake flowers covered the stage, Rodrigo sang to the camera at points, and the climactic performance of “the cure” ended with water cascading over her on an auxiliary stage. The stunt washed one dress away to reveal another. It was the night’s biggest piece of spectacle, but the show’s center of gravity stayed with Rodrigo’s voice and the band behind her.
Her stage presence also made space for the guitar. During “maggots for brains,” Rodrigo played a Strokes-like lead line she’s been adding to her concerts. It’s a moment with some risk: the solo could go wrong, and that’s part of its appeal. She isn’t yet playing with the fluid command of an instrumental specialist, but she’s reaching for that kind of presence instead of keeping her instrument work safely in the background.
And the guitar heroics never eclipse her singing. The high notes in “cigarette smoke” were a vocal highlight, delivered with the kind of control that makes the quieter songs feel as forceful as the rock numbers. Rodrigo’s range is central to the show’s shape: she can move from a full-band rush to a piano-led confession without making either feel like an intermission from the other.
Imperfection as part of the performance
Rodrigo knows how to play to an arena. She smiles through the upbeat songs, adopts a more distressed expression for the sad ones, and draws the crowd into sing-alongs and group screams. That polish is part of her training as an entertainer, and it’s visible in the show’s pacing. But a few details made the performance feel less carefully sealed than a typical pop production.
During “honeybee,” the first of several late-show ballads performed at the piano, white confetti fell around her like snow. Rodrigo left pieces in her hair through the next two songs. After the water effect in “the cure,” she performed the final three songs with wet hair. Those choices might have been planned, but they also let the evening look a little less pristine than the usual arena spectacle.
That ambiguity is compelling. An artist can make a deliberate choice to appear unguarded, and that choice is still part of the performance. What matters here is that Rodrigo was willing to let the audience see her with confetti in her hair and her clothes still wet, rather than resetting the image between songs. She has the stagecraft to manage emotion for a crowd; these moments added a more relaxed edge to that craft.
Old songs still have room to grow
Rodrigo is 23, and the set raises a fair question about how long the most adolescent songs from SOUR will fit comfortably into her developing catalogue. “traitor,” a song steeped in suspicion over an ex’s quick new relationship, can sound young beside the sharper writing on her newer material.
Yet age doesn’t automatically make those songs obsolete. “favorite crime” built toward one of the night’s most affecting peaks as Rodrigo’s voice climbed into its upper register: “All the things I did / Just so I could call you mine / All the things you did / Well, I hope I was your favorite crime.” The moment landed with full force. “drivers license,” which followed, carries enough scale to feel larger than the life stage that inspired it. It could remain a vivid early-career snapshot for years, the way Alex Chilton’s “Thirteen” still holds its own.
The closing choice offered a glimpse of what comes next. Rodrigo ended with “expectations,” a new wave-leaning song that updates the directness of “No Scrubs” into a lesson about setting standards. It’s a useful counterweight to the catalogue’s longing and heartbreak: the show left its young audience with a song about refusing to settle for less.
A wider public voice
Politics entered the concert plainly. Rodrigo told the crowd that mailing in her ballot had been the best part of her day, and she finished the show in a T-shirt supporting Dr. Amy Acton, the Democratic candidate for Ohio governor. A voter-registration table stood in the arena lobby.
The moment fits a broader pattern in Rodrigo’s public work. Her Daisy Chain Fields festival raised $20 million for women’s rights organizations, and she recently appeared at Tom Morello’s concert-as-rally. She could keep those commitments outside the concert, but here they sat alongside songs about relationships and self-respect. The political message was visible without taking over the night; the music remained the main event.
That balance helps explain why the performance felt personal even within a carefully staged production. Rodrigo’s show is built to entertain, and it does. It also makes room for a guitar solo that might not be flawless, confetti left in her hair, wet hair at the finish and an explicit appeal to vote. The combination suggests an artist whose public identity is still taking shape, with rock ambitions and a growing willingness to bring more of herself onto the stage.
Setlist
“drop dead”
“u + me = <3”
“so american”
“good 4 u”
“my way”
“serena joy”
“bad idea right?”
“ballad of a homeschooled girl”
“vampire”
“purple”
“stupid song”
“maggots for brains”
“traitor”
“pretty isn't pretty”
“begged”
“cigarette smoke”
“honeybee”
“favorite crime”
“drivers license”
“less”
“the cure”
“deja vu”
“all-american bitch”
“expectations”
