“It’s the first day of my period,” Lorde said, walking on stage. “Now it’s time to go full transparency.”
New Zealand singer-songwriter, Ella O’Connor, known professionally as Lorde, swung the “Hammer” down hard, opening the “Ultrasound” World Tour on Wednesday with the first song off the June 2025 release, Virgin. After opting for mostly smaller venues on the 2022 Solar Power tour, her Moody Center debut marks a new wave of Lorde’s arena domination.
Lorde said she swam in Barton Springs on Tuesday, suiting the stripped-down essence of Virgin and the accompanying tour. She reminisced about her first performance in Austin as part of her debut tour, the 2014 Pure Heroine Tour, at age 18. It fits that she paired the new album with old favorites evocative of a time of youth and purity, telling a cohesive narrative for the entirety of the show.
“Austin is a place where you want the real thing,” Lorde said. “You want what’s behind all the layers. I’m in a stage of my life where I’m just peeling off one layer at a time.”
As the first notes of “Current Affairs” droned, she told Austin that she’d “never told this story to anyone.”
She slowly peeled out of her baggy blue jeans to reveal her grey Calvin Kleins. Wrapping her arms around her guitarist, she bared herself emotionally as sweat dripped down her face. At the chorus, she broke away from the embrace and sprinted across the stage. The stage lifted and she wreathed on the floor, closing out the song.
Lorde rose to her feet to sing “Supercut,” jumping up and down with the audience in a moment reminiscent of a coming-of-age movie. She stepped onto a treadmill, barefoot, running and pumping her fists in the air, asking fans to “come home to her heart.”
“In the interest of the magic,” Lorde said, “I am going to sing something that is physically impossible.”
For the first time in 11 years, Lorde performed “No Better,” a deep cut from the extended version of Pure Heroine. She lit a flare at the end of “The Louvre,” put her jeans back on, and while sitting on the stage, Lorde pulled the crowd into another intimate moment before “Liability.”
“Austin, I don’t ever want to hide anything from you,” Lorde said. “In fact, I think that the mission of my life is to keep revealing myself to you.”
She stepped into a flashing “Clearblue” cone of light, leading into an intimate performance of “Man of the Year,” where she stripped down to her jeans and silver tape covering her chest — matching the look from the single’s cover.
She entered the set’s home stretch with the Virgin lead single, “What Was That,” released the night her close friend, Charli XCX, played the Moody Center in April. With nostalgic “Team,” “Green Light,” and the kicking closer, Lorde hosted a Perfect Place for the Liabilities of the world to let out their most unapologetic selves.
“This is the most precious moment we have,” Lorde said, before performing “Ribs” in the crowd. “Are you ready?”
Editor’s Note: A previous verison of this article misidentified Lorde’s first Austin performance as being at Austin City Limits. Lorde took the stage at Austin Music Hall during her Pure Heroine tour at age 18.
