A staggering production, she manages six costume changes and a setlist that does its best to crystallise her diverse discography into nine songs.
Words: Abigail Firth.
Photos: Frances Beach.
Rina Sawayama ticks all the boxes. She’s practically an entire festival lineup in one pop star. As part of the ‘Hold The Girl: Reloaded’ tour she’s currently on, she lands at Reading on the Main Stage and it’s exactly where she belongs. A staggering production, she manages six costume changes and a setlist that does its best to crystallise her diverse discography into nine songs.
The titular emotional semi-ballad ‘Hold The Girl’ kicks off proceedings, Rina performing a tightly choreographed Kate Bush style routine around the stage gear, barely scratching the surface of what she’s capable of. Throwing herself into roaring power ballad ‘Hurricanes’ her skirt is ripped off for the first change of the show. Throughout all the dancing and costume changes, she’s impressively stable, rivalling the best vocal divas with her prowess during the huge ‘Dynasty’.
As the set takes a turn, ‘STFU!’ is introduced with a call out to how fucked up the world is right now, and likely one of the most metal sections of the weekend (Reading used to be a rock festival, eh) as she intros it with Korn’s ‘Blind’ and outros with Limp Bizkit’s ‘Break Stuff’. Frankenstein follows suit with it’s Bloc Party rhythm section and an insane drum solo.
Rina can do it all though, and the vibes aren’t heavy for long, as she moves into the portion that can only be described as slay. ‘Comme des Garçons’ opens with an on stage change into a blazer and head mic behind a newspaper dubbed ‘MOTHER TIMES’ emblazoned with an ‘XS’ ad and the headline ‘I SIMPLY CAN’T SLAY ANY LESS’, and you know, she can’t. Cockiness reigns supreme during the 00s deep house fuelled banger, before finishing on platinum-on-the-internet hits ‘XS’ and ‘This Hell’, like MUNA dedicating the latter to the queer community.
An extravagant finale that finishes off Rina’s triumphant UK festival run with a bang and puts her in incredible stead for the next phase of her career.
