Caroline Polachek Connects At CSMH

Viral avant-pop darling and Grammy nominee Caroline Polachek took a stop between shows opening for Dua Lipa Sunday evening to headline in her home state of Connecticut. Polachek’s ​“one-off” concert at College Street Music Hall marks the first time the 36-year-old artist has performed as a solo act in the state where she grew up.

“Connecticut’s a weird place, isn’t it?” said Polachek, who was raised in Greenwich. ​“Very fucking weird.”

Polachek was excited to be playing at the more intimate venue in New Haven, where she said she could ​“feel” the crowd. It contrasted the colossal arenas she is playing with Dua Lipa, which she compared to Ancient Rome to describe the pure vastness.

The ethereal art-pop performer played songs from her 2019 debut solo album Pang, which Pitchfork described as ​“love songs about the moment of surrender, the pain preceding it, and the euphoria after.”

Songs from her ​“bedroom-to-dancefloor pop” album feature Polachek’s crystal-clear tone and ​“soaring, near-operatic vocalizations.” Her impeccable and otherworldly vocal control and expansive range reflected Polachek’s classical voice training through growing up as a choir student.

Shimmering synths and a driving bass-line created a lush and ornate atmosphere on songs like ​“Ocean of Tears,” which describes the pain of a detached lover:

Oh, my God, I wanna know what it feels like
To pull you close and tangle up with you real tight
The only thing that’s separating you and me tonight
Ah!, is an ocean of tears

The album’s glossy production style translated well to her live performance, as slight imperfections in Polachek’s voice facilitated a new warmth to her usually polished music. A re-orchestrated version of her song ​“New Normal” featured more prominent drums and bass than the recorded track, adding a grimier feel to the song.

Polachek commanded the stage — dead center — with an open posture and unapologetic confidence. Her dancing originated from her hands, swinging them high above her head every time she exclaimed ​“Pang,” on the album’s title track, and giving herself bunny ears in ​“Bunny Is a Rider.” Polachek often opened her palms to the audience, a gesture that body language experts say conveys honesty, as she sang vulnerable lyrics in songs like ​“Caroline, Shut Up:”

Sometimes I wonder
Do I love you too much?
Then I tell myself, ​‘Caroline, shut up’ ”

Trance-pop artist Doss opened the show with a distinctly more electronic sound that approaches EDM. Paper Mag attributes Doss’s cult following to the success of her ​“dreamy rave-kissed originals and legendary DJ sets that blend together trance, 00s electro and early EDM in a way that feels effortlessly cool.” The danceability of Doss’s set warmed up the crowd just enough to fully let go during Polachek’s performance.

The audience was notably well-versed in Polachek’s repertoire, singing along to hits like ​“Door” and deeper cuts like ​“Hey Big Eyes.” She threw in an unreleased track, ​“Sunset,” which has a Spanish-inspired acoustic guitar line that strays from her usual futuristic and electronic sound.

Polachek came back onstage for an encore to sing her viral hit track, ​“So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings,” which propelled her to fame over the past year as the song gained popularity on TikTok. As of Feb. 21, the song had almost 50 million streams on Spotify and has been used in over 80,000 videos on TikTok.

The set resembled Polachek’s video for that song, which takes place in Polachek’s ​“private kind of hell” as she tries to keep her cool while losing a lover. Behind her was a giant black gate, villainous and brooding. The smoke-filled stage mostly obscured the band, leaving Polachek sometimes seemingly alone and isolated. The gothic elements behind her dreamlike sound sometimes call into question whether it is actually a nightmare.

It is no surprise that dreams are often inspiration for Polachek’s songs, given their futuristic and otherworldly appeal. Before closing out the show with ​“Parachute,” Polachek told the story of the dream that inspired the song:

It was one of those dreams that began without any kind of context, just pure terror. I was in a military airplane, and I was so scared, and I knew that I had to jump out because whatever was going on on that plane was worse than dying. I jumped without thinking. And I’m spinning through the air, spinning, spinning, spinning, senselessly, terrified. And then I feel something holding me around my back, and I realize I’m connected to a parachute.