Walking out in a white collared shirt reading "BLEACH BLONDE BAD BUILT BUTCH BODY" behind a skinny black tie, lesbian pop icon Reneé Rapp commanded the Austin City Limits stage from the very start.
Rapp, whose 2023 debut album Snow Angel artfully cemented the former Broadway star turned "Sex Lives of College Girls" actress' jump to pop stardom, is known for her gorgeous ballads and vengeful cuts that foreshadow an ex-boyfriend's monstrous offspring. The crowd gathered early, like a little gay garden growing and growing as the sun slowly set behind the stage, and Rapp did not disappoint.
The quote on her t-shirt is from Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, who used it in response to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. during a heated hearing after Greene made fun of her eyelashes. "This one is for Marjorie Taylor Greene," Rapp said ahead of the vicious "Poison Poison" where she curses out a girl she doesn't like in a rare (and iconic) portrayal of female unashamed rage. "Me and Jasmine Crockett hate you."
Despite the drama and emotion her songs inspire, Rapp's 40-minute set had an undeniable undercurrent of fun. Opening with "Talk Too Much," a glorious self-deprecating single off her first album about an overthinking spiral in an otherwise wonderful relationship (one told in painfully relatable detail), Rapp engaged the audience right from the start, gesturing for them to sing along with her − something she did in almost every song. And they did, jumping and dancing as she twirled and traversed across the stage to their delight.
A true performer, Rapp used her naturally magnetizing stage presence to play with facial gestures with the cameras to the crowd's delight. The live feed of her and her impressive audience was displayed behind her the whole time, but Rapp didn't need any visual effects to enhance her music. Her voice − improvising to higher keys and stretching notes in an endlessly interesting way − and her active dancing across the stage did that completely.
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The band complemented each song the way a live band is meant to do, bringing the musical expertise to life in an artful and exciting new way for even the most seasoned Rapp fans. Perhaps no two instruments did this more than the electric guitar and keyboard, as well as the occasional bells and echoey microphone, adding a mystical tone to her sharp ballads.
Rapp talked to the audience like an old friend, playfully chastising a fan for putting up a scissor motion with her hand as she transitioned to her next song, teasingly challenging the crowd to sing louder than other shows and asking the audience to say "hey queen" to a young fan upfront. During her gut-wrenching ballad "In the Kitchen," one of her favorite songs from her first EP about a brutal heartbreak, she smiled sweetly at the end, seeming genuinely happy to perform it. You could tell Rapp felt the music in her body, laying down at the end of particularly emotional ballads and gripping the mic stand as she belted boldly.
Though her girlfriend and frequent special guest and bassist Towa Bird didn't come on stage Saturday, Rapp fans did get to join in on other classic Rapp-style concert treats: from her on-stage ad libs during "Pretty Girls," uninviting an experimenting girl's boyfriend, and her silly dance during the moody "Willow."
Rapp is beloved for her blunt honesty on media tours, her striking vocals, calling everyone "baby," and her unabashed owning of her lesbian identity and fierce love for her community. But the caliber of excellence this performance demonstrated proves just how much history will remember her as a rare, truly legendary talent (in fact, she was listed on the Time 100 just last Wednesday).
Her talent could best be seen best during "Snow Angel" − her final ballad of the night and perhaps the only one where she stayed serious throughout. The song, Rapp told the audience, is about an "awful situation."
"I love it so, so, so much," Rapp said. "I feel like every time I sing it, I redeem myself from that situation, and only myself."
She belted the notes of the song gloriously, captivating an already raptured audience even more. In this song especially, she let the emotion move through her, and in doing so, the audience felt it too.
Rapp will be back at Zilker next weekend — her final performance of the year. One music lover to another, you won't want to miss it.