Photo by Ragan Henderson<\/a><\/p>\n The devil, the Statue of Liberty, a glamorous cowgirl, a construction worker, Joan of Arc: These are the dominant archetypes of the costume-clad at Forest Hills Stadium, all here for night two of Chappell Roan<\/a>\u2019s four-night run. Walking through the venue, I spot not one but two guys dressed as Lady Liberty whose bodies are entirely painted an ashy shade of green; when I compliment one, he says it hardly took any time at all\u2014\u201conly about an hour and a half\u201d\u2014to cover every visible inch of his skin in green paint. The sartorial standard to which Chappell Roan fans hold themselves is high: Glance around the crowd and you\u2019ll see a sea of sequins, perfectly placed wigs, faces beat for the gods, and enough pink cowboy hats to stock every Spirit Halloween in a mid-size city for several years.<\/p>\n The dates at Forest Hills comprise Chappell Roan\u2019s first real New York shows since her star-making set at Governor\u2019s Ball in June of last year. She\u2019s spent most of this summer playing European festivals and before that, has only played a select few U.S. dates\u2014the Grammys, Elton John\u2019s Oscars party, Saturday Night Live\u2014since closing out the relentless tour behind her debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess<\/a>. Alongside the New York dates, this run of \u201cpop-up shows,\u201d dubbed \u201cVisions of Damsels and Other Dangerous Things,\u201d includes two nights in Kansas City and two in Los Angeles. The shows are, through one lens, a victory lap after a couple of years of outrageous success: main-stage festival appearances, sold-out tours, chart hits. (When she came to Brooklyn just after the release of her album, for example, she played Brooklyn Steel\u2014a venue seven times smaller than Forest Hills.) But they\u2019re also something of a measured re-entry, after having had to drop out of a festival last fall<\/a> for mental health reasons and contending with the intense pressures of sudden fame<\/a>.<\/p>\n Chappell Roan<\/p>\n Photo by [Ragan Henderson](https:\/\/www.raganhenderson.com\/)<\/p><\/div>\n Entering a Chappell Roan show means being immediately swept up in a crowd that feels very campy, very queer, very femme: gaggles of teen girls in coordinated outfits posing for group selfies; parents and children in matching Chappell drag; couples holding hands in trans rights t-shirts. Even if some elements radiated brand-activation energy\u2014take your picture with the apple from which Roan emerged at Governor\u2019s Ball! Pose in a set-and-repeat with the giant wig from her \u201cThe Subway<\/a>\u201d video!\u2014there was a purposefulness threaded throughout: You couldn\u2019t wait in the seemingly endless merch line without a chipper volunteer from Headcount approaching to ask if you\u2019re registered to vote, and representatives from the Ali Forney Center for queer youth and New York\u2019s LGBT Center hung around nearby. (After all that, if you wanted your new t-shirt cropped, stamped, and bejeweled, another booth with a shorter line promised \u201cmerch customizations.\u201d If that was not enough, there was also, for some reason, a booth offering free Crocs jibbetz.)<\/p>\n The \u201cVisions of Damsels\u201d aesthetic is glamorous and medieval; on stage, the main set piece was a gothic castle, and Roan came out dressed in an ornate pirate cape. She took full advantage of her architectural environs, prompting me to google \u201cparts of a castle\u201d to confirm that the parapet is the walkway she skipped across while singing \u201cHot to Go!\u201d and the turret is the corner tower from which she belted \u201cCalifornia.\u201d<\/p>\n Roan has the presence of a seasoned veteran but the discography of a newbie\u2014just one album and a handful of singles\u2014and here, she sang nearly every single song she\u2019s released. She\u2019s an explosive performer, all full-throttle charisma and showstopper vocals; the cheering was deafening when she belted the bridge of \u201cGood Luck, Babe!\u201d and the outro of \u201cThe Subway.\u201d Still, after the latter track, Roan confessed she had a migraine, which\u2014she noted despondently\u2014would restrict her headbanging.<\/p>\n Chappell Roan and Nancy Wilson<\/p>\n Photo by [Ragan Henderson](https:\/\/www.raganhenderson.com\/)<\/p><\/div>\n Still, Roan\u2019s live band dialed up the rock factor of many of her songs, with heavy guitars undergirding the choruses of \u201cNaked in Manhattan\u201d and \u201cGood Luck, Babe!\u201d Roan introduced a cover of Heart\u2019s \u201cBarracuda\u201d by saying it was \u201cthe best rock song ever by the best rock band ever,\u201d a compliment I would have found very heartwarming by itself\u2014let\u2019s get Chappell\u2019s army of young queer Zoomers streaming Dreamboat Annie!\u2014but then she introduced Nancy Wilson to the stage to perform the song alongside her, which positively ripped. Even Roan\u2019s ballads felt lively; she camped up \u201cPicture You,\u201d for example, by hanging a blonde wig on the mic and serenading it.<\/p>\n Before performing \u201cCoffee,\u201d Roan reminisced about having recently walked by the Bowery Ballroom, the site of her first New York show. Seated in a giant throne in the corner of the stage, she said it was all feeling very full-circle: She was disappointed that the migraine meant she couldn\u2019t give 100%, but it was making her reapproach the set and find a little flexibility\u2014and in turn, she said, this show\u2019s \u201cvery loose and fun\u201d nature reminded her of her style back in those early Bowery days. She really did seem to be having fun, often stopping to laugh mid-song\u2014as when she played the deep cut \u201cLove Me Anyway,\u201d a non-album track from 2020. \u201cI love you because when I say \u2018I don\u2019t wanna talk\u2019\/You always call me,\u201d she sang, then stopped herself: \u201cI\u2019m laughing because that line is insane,\u201d she told the crowd. \u201cDon\u2019t call me if I say don\u2019t call me!\u201d<\/p>\n The set ended with \u201cPink Pony Club\u201d\u2014an escapist fantasy that describes the small-town dream of finding purpose and community under brighter lights somewhere else. Forest Hills Stadium is perhaps too small a venue for a star at Roan\u2019s level, but the roar of the crowd during that final song made the space feel both enormous and intimate, the timbre of much-needed togetherness in a time when queer community feels increasingly under threat<\/a>. Even if Roan wasn\u2019t at 100%, it nonetheless felt like she and the crowd gave it everything they had.<\/p>\n<\/span><\/div>\n
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