Thursday night saw a pair of rising pop stars team up for a memorable doubleheader at the Observatory in Santa Ana.
Sweden and Norway are separated by less than an hour via a plane ride. Sweden’s Zara Larsson and Norwegian star Astrid S combined forces to show what the Europeans are doing in the indie pop space, to much fanfare.
Kicking off her headline set with “Symphony”, her memorable song with Clean Bandit, Larsson ran through a set that proves she’s a future hitmaker for years to come. Wearing a lime green ensemble and flanked by dancers for the duration of the night, she blew the crowd away. She ran through 17 songs in all at a rapid pace, barely taking time to catch her breath.
Astrid S had about half as much time, but wowed the crowd nonetheless. Highlights included “Breathe” and my personal favorite “Hurts So Good”. The drop in the latter song gives me goosebumps every time. The 22-year-old has been dropping singles left and right, hopefully leading to a debut album sometime soon.
