The fan love for Rex Orange County clearly cannot be contained with all 6,000 seats of the Shrine Auditorium sold out yet empty last Friday night as everyone was on their two feet dancing and singing along to the English idol. It was the first of back-to-back nights for the singer at the venue as he kicked off his 2020 in massive fashion.
Since his blow up year back in 2017 — as well as collaborating with Tyler The Creator on Flower Boy — Rex Orange County released his third studio album Pony in October of this year. Looking at the crowd from last weekend, it seems that two months is more than enough time to get all of Los Angeles to memorize every word to every song on the album.
Just like the stage design, the performance that Rex Orange County gave us was dreamy. Each high note echoed through the whole auditorium and landed like pillowy clouds in the audience’s ears. Rex Orange county is our modern day multi-instrumental heart throb and the talent he showcased has many of us still melting.
Rex’s set was split into three distinct acts. The first half-dozen or so songs were played with his full band backing him up. He followed with a handful of songs with just an acoustic guitar, including a cover of the Grease classic “Hopelessly Devoted to You”. His band rejoined him on stage for the last half-dozen or so songs, including his encore of “Always”.
Rex Orange County is poised for his biggest year yet, with an appearance on Coachella 2020‘s second line of their lineup poster. You can catch him there back-to-back weekends in Indio. If you’re lucky, you’ll also catch him this Saturday at the sold-out iHeartRadio ALTer EGO at The Forum. Can’t make it? You can watch a live stream of the show via LiveXLive.
Words and photos by Paulette Ely
