Review: My Kink is Watching Chappell Roan Bring the House of Blues Down
Pop-icon Chappell Roan brought The Midwest Princess Tour to the House of Blues in Boston Sunday night with a red & black theme for her song "My Kink is Karma."
October 17, 2023
By Alyssa Goldberg
If you see a line formed around the block and over a bridge on your way into a venue, you get the feeling it's going to be a special show. Chappell Roan––the queer, emerging pop-star from Missouri––brought The Midwest Princess Tour to the House of Blues Boston on Sunday, October 15 along with three local drag queens for a spectacular performance.
Growing up in a small, religious town, Roan suppressed her feelings for girls throughout her adolescence, writing it off as a phase that would soon dissipate. It wasn’t until she left her hometown for Los Angeles that she embraced her queer identity and found a community of other LGBTQ+ people in the big city. Her shows are a celebration of queer joy and feel like a partying dream-sequence.
Roan has brought drag queens to her shows to uplift the local queer community in each city. Boston’s own Tara Dikhof, Kulfi Jaan, and Chanel Thee Angel opened the night––bringing a euphoric energy to the room. Barricade liners screamed and waved dollar bills, cheering on their exquisite routines. One lucky fan was brought onstage to be crowned queen of the night with a bedazzled stash––matching the pearls she had arranged in a heart-shape around her face.
Roan sets a theme based on her songs for each night of the tour––assigning colors, costumes, and general vibes to cities across the country. Sunday night, fans were dressed in red and black for "My Kink is Karma," styled with lace, fishnets, cowboy hats, gems and statement jewelry.
After a short 20-minute break, the lights dimmed for Roan’s set. She opened with “Femininomenon” before the track blended into “Red White Supernova,” accompanied by Roan jumping throughout the stage, laying down across the floor, and kicking her legs up into the air. From just the first few songs, it was evident that we were watching a pop icon in the making.
We had a moment to chat with a fan on the barricade, Orly Einhorn, who rocked a bedazzled cowboy hat with Roan’s name spelled out in gems.
“The universe the Chappell Roan project creates is aspirational, but also self manifesting. When I first heard her music in college in Missouri, I was trying to find a community to celebrate my queerness with and her songs allowed me to imagine bigger versions of myself,” Einhorn said. “Now I'm here, several years later, celebrating that version of myself surrounded by people who get it, even if we're total strangers. They get why I spent 40+ hours on this hat, because it's a form of self expression that in and of itself is freeing. [Chappell’s] really created a beautiful space for us to share in that aspirational self transformation.”
The Midwest Princess Tour continues through November, with dates in New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles and all the other major cities. Be sure her headlining shows before she opens for Olivia Rodrigo next spring!
