On Sunday night, if one were to descend the steps of Old National into the downstairs Deluxe, they would find the stairs littered with red feathers, presumably shed from a feather boa.
This is how they would know they were in the right place: headed to Chappell Roan’s show.
The show started not with an opening band, but rather with a drag show, three queens from the Indianapolis drag scene dancing and lip-syncing to pop songs onstage as the sold out crowd lost their minds in joy. During their performance, they called a person onto the stage — the lucky one to have received a gold wristband that night — and named her “the Queen of Indianapolis,” starting the show off strong.
Chappell Roan and her all-woman band came on at 8:30 to absolutely thunderous applause, the crowd shaking the room with their cheers. Much of the crowd was decked out in red and black, many wearing devil horns, capes, glitter, sequins, and even clown-like face paint.
Chappell, fitting well to the theme, wore a black leather bodysuit over patterned tights, and her fire-red curls were loose and flowing as she immediately started dancing around with the first song, “Femininomemon.” She kept this energy up for the entire show, oftentimes jumping around, dancing with her bandmates, and even teaching the crowd song-specific dances to encourage participation.
The audience ate up every moment that she was on the stage, most people singing along every word. Excitement in the room grew when the singer revealed that she would indeed be playing every song on her debut album, “The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.”
Chappell’s music is best described as queer-focused girlypop, many of her songs promoting female empowerment and speaking on both failed and successful queer relationships. She introduced the song “Kaleidoscope” by revealing to the audience that it was about her first love, who had been her best friend.
She was also humorous, telling stories of failed Starbucks dates and relationship advice from her mother, afterwards shouting, “Do you know how lesbian relationships work?!” and getting a huge pop from the crowd before transitioning into “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl.”
Some of the biggest audience reactions were to the dancing-encouraged “HOT TO GO!,” the cover of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance,” and of course the final encore song, “Pink Pony Club,” which fans recognized within the first few opening notes.
In spite of the audience’s excitement for all of these songs, perhaps the most impactful moment of the show was Chappell giving a heartfelt speech towards the end, telling her story and talking about why she was doing this tour — in which all of the ticket proceeds were going to a Black trans charity out of New Jersey. She spoke about growing up queer in the Midwest and feeling desperate for this kind of space, “where everyone can dress up and everyone can kiss whoever they want.”
She concluded by saying that she wanted to give queer kids a space in which they could feel “two hours of peace.” Given the audience’s reaction to the entire show, it is safe to say that, despite the roaring sound of cheers echoing almost ear-splittingly off the walls of The Deluxe, they would agree that peace is what they received.
The Lineup:
Chappell Roan – Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, Aubrey Haris, Eliza Petrosyan, Lucy Ritter