Olivia Rodrigo’s “The Unraveled Tour” Is a Pretty Flawless Arena Experience

I’ll say it: It’s really hard to dislike Olivia Rodrigo. Shocker, I know, but it turns out — and stay with me on this — that she’s pretty dang good. And with the commercial and critical success of her latest album, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, the former Disney star seems to be at the top of her game. So, is it really any surprise that the accompanying tour, her ongoing “The Unraveled Tour,” is as fun, well-crafted, and charming as Rodrigo’s recent output? As showcased Monday night during her second Chicago show, “The Unraveled Tour” is everything you could want from a stadium concert. It’s got big set pieces, big hit songs, and big, noticeably rock-based energy.

The star of the show — besides Rodrigo herself, of course — is the production’s art direction. From the top down, each aspect of the concert-going experience feels like it was specifically designed to adhere to an internal logic and contribute to the whole, and it starts before Rodrigo and her band ever step on stage. Walking in, there was a fully built-out activation (with a long, long line), and after openers Wolf Alice closed out their set, instead of generic house music or promotional visuals filling the transitional space, whistling wind was pumped through the loudspeakers, and a video of Rodrigo lying in a field, with the camera slowly zooming in, served as a pseudo-countdown for the main event.

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The resulting set was structured into six acts that move through a year’s worth of seasons: “Spring,” “Summer,” “Summer Twilight,” “Autumn,” “Winter,” and “Spring II” (which effectively served as the encore). It’s a well-thought-out plan, with each segment housing a handful of songs that relate either tonally or thematically. The choice gives the show a nice, satisfying arc, not unlike the loose lifecycle of a relationship found on you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love. On a functional level, meanwhile, it has the pacing benefit of keeping a two-hour show moving at a nice, brisk pace, as well as the technical benefit of hiding set and costume changes behind vibey vignettes.

Each act had its own set piece, like emerging from a sea of flowers or popping up at a surprise “in the round” stage in the middle of the pit or switching on the synchronized LED wristbands that attendees received upon entry. (To be fully honest, I worried that the latter would be a bit gimmicky, but it was actually a fun little moment of interaction. It’s also undeniably Disney/imagineering coded.) Of course, the whole thing built to the viral, very cool disintegrating dress stunt, which is better seen than read about. All in all, Rodrigo’s version of spectacle is remarkably cohesive and thoroughly engaging.

As for the music itself, there’s very little to complain about. Rodrigo expectedly sounded great on the mic, even while she jumped around during bangers like “good 4 u” or “expectations,” and the women that made up her backing band rocked the hell out. Perhaps it’s unsurprising given the fact she’s shared the stage with acts like Weezer and Smashing Pumpkins, duetted with The Cure’s Robert Smith, consistently brings full-on rock and punk bands out on tour, and has never shied away from her guitar music influences, but the current live renditions of her catalogue lean hard on their rock ‘n’ roll undertones. The drummer was as hard-hitting and physical as Dave Grohl, the guitarist shredded away on more than one occasion, and Rodrigo herself even performed the solo on “maggots for brains.” The pop star clearly wanted to make sure her tracks translated to the limitations of a five-piece band (plus three backup singers), and the result is energetic and impressive.

Of course, there’s one aspect of a show that Rodrigo and her production team can’t fully control: the crowd. Luckily for them, the sold-out audience more than showed up. Looking out into the audience, you’d see a sea of pink and purple babydoll dresses losing their minds. Skewing slightly younger and (yes) largely female, it was easy to get swept up in the excitement of the superfans. Walking out of the show, it was also easy to understand why they were so excited in the first place.

Now with three albums and plenty of headlining dates under her belt, it’s no secret that Olivia Rodrigo is a talent. What she proves with “The Unraveled Tour,” though, is the same thing she proved with you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love: she’s lost no passion, she’s lost no creativity, and she’s only getting better.