Partying with Lorde down at Baby's All Right (Virgin Listening Party)
We danced, we danced, and we danced some more all while hearing Lorde's new album before anyone else with Lorde in the room.
Anyone who knows me knows that Lorde is one of my all-time favorite artists for a plethora of reasons. For anyone who doesn’t know me, here’s the TLDR. Living in New York City, you never know what the day is going to hold, but I never would have believed you on Sunday morning if you told me I’d be spending my night at Baby’s All Right dancing to Lorde’s new album “Virgin” 5 days early with Lorde in the room.
BEFORE:
On my way home from her Rough Trade event, I used my last 1% to respond to the text she sent to her community number at 7:00 PM.
📲 “NY........Message if you're around late tn”.
I responded by 7:01, and by 7:02 my phone died. Wild sequence of events. I got home, greeted my boyfriend by telling him about how great the Rough Trade event was, plugged my phone in, and informed him that I had to head back out to try and get into this event.
9:25 PM: I got to Baby’s, there were about 10-15 people (half of whom I know from the internet) in line down the street waiting to see how any of us were getting inside the event.
9:30 PM:
📲 “She sent the text!” one of my best friends, Joe, sends in our group chat (that’s been called ‘Melodramatic Book Club’ for 7-8 years), except nobody else in line has gotten the text.
📲 “Baby’s All Right 11pm. You +1. Send me your names and bring id.”
By 9:41 PM Joe decided he was getting in an Uber and coming because when Lorde invites you to an exlcusive event, you drop everything and run.
10:31 PM: Joe arrives and we get in line. Lorde shows up by 11:04, we get inside by 11:28 and are playing the waiting game. We run to the bathroom and see her sister sitting at a table by the bar, Terrence O’Connor is standing across from her. We found a spot on a ledge that was directly under an AC vent (thank the Lorde) and quickly realized that she wasn’t going to be on stage, rather dancing with us on the dancefloor all night.
11:58 PM: Lorde comes out after teasing us all on TikTok live for 20 minutes and tells us that she started hanging out at Baby’s All Right in 2023. It’s where “Virgin” began and “the only place it felt right to play the album in full for the first time.” She pressed play on the album and told us she’d talk to us in 40 minutes once the album was over.
DURING:
We danced, and we danced, and we danced. This album is a completely unique sound for Lorde, and I think it’s going to surprise a lot of people. As much as I wish I could remember lyrics or key messaging in each song but when you’re in a 250 capacity room with one of your favorite artists of all time, you don’t tend to retain much other than “holy shit????” - however, here’s what I do remember:
Man of the Year goes 10x harder in person
Shapeshifter went absolutely crazy
She told me Favourite Daughter would be my favorite at Rough Trade because Perfect Places and A World Alone are two of my favorite songs by her - she was right
Clearbue was gut-wrenchingly beautiful. It was stacks and stacks and stacks of vocals on top of each other, with the most deafening silence between the lines
David has a “Pure Heroine” reference in it
If She Could See Me Now samples Suga Suga by Baby Bash, and was SO fun
Current Affairs and Broken Glass were two other favs
My favorite thing about this album is the way she explained that the music and sounds came first, which makes each song a full rounded listening experience. By letting the music speak before the lyrics, it didn’t matter that the AC units at Baby’s were rattling to the bass and I couldn’t fully hear every line because you could feel the song in the vibrations.
We ended the night dancing to Ribs and everyone in that room lost their damn minds (Lorde included).
AFTER:
Virgin is out this Friday, June 27th. Pre-order here.