Review: Alice Phoebe Lou creates ‘a welcome respite’ at Berklee Performance Center

Photo by Curtis DeSmith.

April 11 at 8 p.m. marked Alice Phoebe Lou’s third show of her 2026 tour with opening act John Andrews & The Yawns. Inside the Berklee Performance Center, fans and music supporters alike spent the evening swaying in sequence to Lou’s melancholy sounds and silky voice. 

Seated on a wooden stool in a beanie and black Converse, Andrews strummed his guitar and bounced his leg to the beat of his acoustic set. Setting the stage for the main act to come, Andrews performed his songs with a comfort and ease that invited a warm closeness with the audience.

Right at 9 p.m., Lou walked out in a flowing dusty blue pantsuit, her signature long, wispy hair illuminated by the warm glow of the spotlight. After a welcoming applause, Lou stood with her acoustic guitar and began her first song, “Hammer.” Her voice and the strums of her guitar mingled enchantingly, capturing the complete attention of everyone in the space.

Playing under a mixture of colored lights and complete darkness, the stage was lit to visualize the motion of the music as it flowed in and around the audience. Lou played “Sailor,” “Mind Reader” and “Pretender,” illuminated  by the spotlight amid the complete darkness onstage. 

With no general admission in the Berklee Performance Center, each listener had a seat in the house, which for Lou, couldn’t have been better. 

“I played the last two nights to a standing audience, which has been sweet, but is also so intense,” Lou said in between songs. “You’re up here by yourself and you’re needing to keep people on their feet.” 

A voice as soft as Lou’s demands attention and quiet, something fans were more than happy to provide as they listened and swayed softly in their seats. With 25 songs in her setlist, each building upon the last, Lou’s confidence and volume progressed with the show.

With just herself and her guitar, Lou was able to share how her songs sounded when she first wrote them without worrying about keeping the energy up with a backing band. 

“I’ve always had a bit of a complex, feeling like I’m not enough without the band,” Lou said. “It’s really nice to come up here and feel like [I’m] enough to play these songs in their most basic form.”

While they might be the melodies that Lou originally wrote, she sang her music as if she were performing covers, mixing in runs and whole notes to make songs that only this crowd would hear. 

For her fifth song, “Lover / / Over the Moon,” Lou switched out her acoustic guitar for an electric one, further deepening her sound. Vulnerable under the spotlight, Lou performed with the intensity of a lover calling out from her window, her song carrying the wistful nostalgia for the nights they once shared. 

Fans sang along as she played “Glow,” finally finding space for their voices in her eighth song of the night. Then came her third instrument of the set: the grand piano on stage right. 

“I am no pianist. I feel almost embarrassed playing piano in Berklee, but I do write songs on the piano,” Lou said. “Since we’re just listening to the songs together, let’s do a few of these.”

Lou then played “Oblivion,” “Sparkle,” “Dusk,” “Old Shadows,” “Lately,” “Better” and a never‐before-performed lullaby. The piano became a third stage for Lou’s music to shine, the keys championing her emotional voice. 

On her last instrument of the night, an omnichord which she named “darlin’,” Lou performed “Touch” and “Only When I,” masterfully playing the keys to produce twinkling sounds that sent shivers down audience members’ necks. 

It’s clear that Lou sees her concerts as opportunities for connection, one that she continues to foster through the stories she tells and the music she plays. Her third-to-last song was a cover of Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon,” when she encouraged the audience to sing along with her and her guitar — if only just the chorus — with the hope of spreading her folksy community spirit.

Lou closed out the night with her two most popular songs, “Open my Door” and “Witches,” which made up her self-titled “diva encore,” as she didn’t leave the stage to garner extra applause as most artists do. The latter filled the concert hall with palpable energy and joy.

“I hope tonight has been a welcome respite. It’s nice to be all together feeling one thing in a little corner of the world,” Lou said. “We can take this sweet energy made together and do something nice with it.”

Read the piece here on the Huntington News Website:

https://huntnewsnu.com/92874/lifestyle/alice-phoebe-lou/