Chxrry is the whole show

Baby's All Right was simply too small. That was my biggest problem as I snaked through the backroom thicketed with fans anxiously awaiting Chxrry. When I interviewed the Canadian singer-songwriter earlier in the summer, U, Me & My Ego had yet to release. Three months out and it’s safe to say Chxrry has launched herself into the center of pop girl conversations thanks to that record’s shamelessly emotive lyrics and forward-thinking fusion of synthpop, rage, and R&B.

Her latest sold-out tour across the country exposed just how much her fandom had grown, and perhaps outgrown expectations. After selling out her initial run, her team had to book more dates, including a September 15 show at Bowery Ballroom that will bring her back to the city. Tonight, August 27, Baby’s verges on claustrophobic as we approach set time.

Whatever the opposite of an industry plant is, that’s how The Ego Tour feels. When she emerges in front of the crowd at 8:15 p.m., Chxrry is performing with basically nothing, armed with a mic and armored in latex. The crowd lit up for every track on the album, singing along enthusiastically. Midway through “Badness,” I wondered how Chxrry would handle Cash Cobain’s lengthy guest verse in absentia, but I shouldn’t have worried – the crowd rapped every word for her. (Later, Cash himself popped out for an encore performance.)

The product of dedicated studio sessions with right-hand producer Believve, Chxrry’s U, Me & My Ego arrived with poise and polish, a marked leap in quality from the EPs that preceded it. When I first heard the album, it was clear that songs like “Blockstar” and “Bottles & Lights” were perfectly calibrated to ring off live. But I was surprised by how well-suited Chxrry’s slower and deeper cuts felt for group karaoke. Collective renditions of “Bible” and “Boring” offered cutting emotional catharsis, and I was thrilled to hear non-album single “Just Like Me” and Siren cut “More.”

For the live show, Chxrry reorganized the album tracklist, a way to keep the audience on their toes. The tracklist of U, Me & My Ego moves from “Blockstar” (“I’ma make you love me”) to “Main Character” (“I’m the main character / bitch, fuck a background”). In that sequencing, the project takes on a metatextual quality as Chxrry weaves an underdog-to-star narrative that feels like it’s speaking directly to the listener about her career ambitions. As she pointed out in our May interview, two-thirds of the album title is about herself as a person and as an artist.

But opening with “Bible” (“loving you makes me dumb / stupid”) and closing with “Badness” (“If you don’t want me, I know that the club will”) refocuses her material on the trickily complex romantic relationships that leave her feeling despondent or gassed up or both. In another artist’s hands, this subject matter could veer towards pick-me behavior, but Chxrry remains totally sure of herself, even when love leaves her off balance. So when fans sing along, mapping details from their own lives onto the sonic peaks and valleys of U, Me & My Ego, they can feel strong even when they’re vulnerable.

Right now Chxrry’s biggest problem right now might be that the music of U, Me & My Ego is too good. Two nights before, Cherry had kicked off her tour at Center Stage in Atlanta; footage from that show had prompted fierce online debate about her “low budget” stage design. But it’s still her debut album, and her first run of headlining dates. Even accounting for her previous experience opening on tour for label boss The Weeknd and Mariah the Scientist, some well-meaning fans seem to have misaligned expectations when it comes to the type of pop spectacle they can expect from The Ego Tour.

But let’s be clear: Chxrry is delivering a pop spectacle. There’s something totally thrilling about a star who doesn’t need anything more than herself to put on a show.