REVIEW

DELIVERING A BREATHTAKING FUSION OF BEAUTY AND BRUTALITY — Poppy’s They’re All Around Us tour roared through Chicago on Friday, March 21, marking a triumphant, sold-out performance at the House of Blues. Fans lined the block outside House of Blues, buzzing with anticipation. Inside, the venue swelled with energy, a restless crowd packed shoulder to shoulder, chanting her name before the lights even dimmed. Then, in an instant, the countdown ceased and the room erupted—Poppy graced the stage.

The sold-out show marked a significant moment in her They’re All Around Us tour, a run supporting her latest and most sonically fearless album, Negative Spaces. With this record, Poppy plunges deeper into her metal instincts, but not without keeping one foot firmly planted in the glitchy, hyperpop-laced world she has so effortlessly curated. On stage, that duality became her superpower.

She launched into “have you had enough?” with ferocity, her piercing scream cutting through the thick air like a blade. “Cause the cycle is vicious / The greed is sickness / Evil is all around,” she howled. The crowd matched her energy, a sea of bodies thrashing under flashing strobes as her band delivered razor-sharp riffs and earth-shaking percussion.

For the next 90 minutes, Poppy commanded the stage like an artist possessed. With a 17-song setlist, she shape-shifted between industrial metal, hyperpop, and experimental rock with an ease that felt almost supernatural. Songs like “BLOODMONEY” and “I Disagree” pulsed with mechanical fury, while moments like “vital” and "Anything Like Me” provided a breath of melodic euphoria, her voice soaring above ethereal synths before diving back into guttural screams.

Midway through the set, Poppy took a haunting detour into “the cost of giving up,” offering a raw and emotional pivot from the show’s cathartic energy. Bathed in moody, ethereal lighting, she stood still for a moment, letting the weight of the song settle over the crowd. The track, a stark contrast to her more ferocious moments, showcased a different side of Poppy—one flooded in vulnerability.

As the melancholic guitars rang out, the atmosphere in the House of Blues shifted. Stripped-down percussion and brooding instrumentals created a spacious, almost ghostly backdrop, allowing Poppy’s voice to cut through with a fragile intensity. The crowd, which had been a frenzied mass of movement moments before, stood transfixed, absorbing every word.

If there was a single moment that encapsulated the raw power and brutality of Negative Spaces, it was Poppy’s performance of “the center’s falling out.” The track, a no-holds-barred onslaught of aggression and catharsis, hit the House of Blues like a wrecking ball, sending the crowd into a frenzy of moshing, screaming and unfiltered release.

Poppy stood at the center of it all, a force of nature, her presence commanding as she launched into guttural, unrestrained screams that felt like pure, unfiltered rage. Drawing clear inspiration from her feature on Knocked Loose’s “Suffocate,” this was Poppy at her most unhinged—an artist who has fully embraced the extremes of her sound and isn’t afraid to push them to their limits.

Her vocals, ranging from piercing shrieks to deep, throat-shredding growls, felt suffocating in the best way possible. With each lyric, she dragged the audience further into the chaos: “Hell has no end / Hate has no bounds / You're breathing / But the center's falling out.” As she spat the words “Blood in the leaves / Hand over mouth / Won’t hear your screams / While the center’s falling out,” the energy in the venue reached its peak. Bodies colliding in an electrified, sweaty mosh pit, feeding off the aggression that Poppy delivered with every guttural scream. Her vocal range had never shined brighter than it did in this moment—fluid, powerful, and terrifyingly controlled despite the chaos.

“Scary Mask” proved to be a stunning fusion of hyperpop chaos and industrial metal brutality, the track instantly sent the crowd into a synchronized frenzy, their voices colliding in an electrified chant: “M-A-S-K! Am I okay?” Her vocals fluctuated effortlessly between robotic, hyperpop-styled sweetness and guttural metal screams, creating a sonic juxtaposition that felt both exhilarating and unsettling.

As the night surged toward its climax, Poppy leaned deeper into the chaotic, high-voltage fusion of hyperpop and alternative metal that has become her signature. With “push go,” “Bite Your Teeth,” and “Concrete,” she delivered a relentless final stretch that felt like a full-throttle sprint into her most experimental and exhilarating sonic realms.

“Push Go’s” distorted synths and industrial beats pulsed like an adrenaline rush, Poppy’s vocals alternating between glitchy robotic chirps and breathy, ethereal melodies. With “Bite Your Teeth,” she dove headfirst into sheer brutality, challenging the audience to keep up. Then came “Concrete,” an electrifying fever dream of a song—part bubblegum pop, part death metal and wholly unpredictable.

Just when the crowd thought they had experienced the full force of Poppy’s genre-defying set, she returned for an encore that pushed the energy to its absolute peak. Closing out the night with “they’re all around us” and “new way out,” she proved once more why Negative Spaces is her most intense and daring work yet.

“They’re all around us” thrives on classic heavy metal grit, blending thrash-inspired guitar work with Poppy’s unrelenting, banshee-like screams. The song felt like a primal purge—each note hitting harder, each guttural scream cutting deeper. With flashing strobes and a blood-red glow engulfing the stage, she prowled with a near-manic intensity, embodying the track’s eerie, apocalyptic energy.

Ending with “new way out,” a stunning closer that felt like the perfect bookend to Negative Spaces. While still brimming with aggression, the track carried an anthemic, almost triumphant quality—a battle-scarred farewell drenched in distortion and catharsis.

Poppy’s They’re All Around Us tour is a full-blown declaration that she is an unstoppable force, unbound by genre, expectation or convention. Her show was a masterclass in controlled chaos—one moment, Poppy was an ethereal pop siren, her vocals sweet and haunting; the next, she was a banshee, unleashing primal screams that rattled the room. Her physicality on stage mirrored her sonic unpredictability—fluid yet unhinged, robotic yet human.