King Princess Becomes A Queen At The Music Box

What is there to say about King Princess? For starters, she's one of the most interesting artists to emerge this year. Her songs are catchy and the lyrics are emotional and personal. You can easily relate to what she's singing while belting out to her songs in the car or shower. Her personal life makes you even more invested in her. According to Wikipedia, the most trusted source online, she has been around music her whole life. She was offered a record deal at an incredibly young age and even went to USC's music school. She's a stout supporter for the LGBTQ community and fun fact, her great-great-grandparents were aboard the Titanic. I was introduced to King Princess's music from a friend and was hooked right away after hearing "1950". I listened to "Talia" shortly after and fell in love immediately. I knew I had to see her live and I jumped at the chance when I found out she was coming to San Diego.

On July 30th, I went to the Music Box to see King Princess live. I haven't seen in a concert in awhile and I was happy to have her as my homecoming back to the music scene. Despite blowing up and being relatively new, the show was sold out. I've never been to a show before where the crowd was predominately female and I was impressed with the age range. There were adults, teenagers, and even some kids who had to drag their moms to the show. It was crazy how King Princess released "1950" in only February and less than half a year later, she had a sold out show with a bunch of hardcore fans.

The opener for King Princess was a singer named Donna Missal. I've never heard of her before and i'm usually wary of openers but she flipped my bias upside down that night. Despite being new to my ears, she performed onstage like a veteran. She had great stage presence and knew how to work the crowd. My favorite part of her set was her cover of the famous Paula Cole song "I Don't Want to Wait" aka Dawson's Creek's theme song. It was rare to have someone cover that song but it's such a good song to cover. Anyone who knew the song, myself included, belted out the lyrics alongside her. Despite being an opener, she made the most of her set and ended with a bang which pumped up the crowd right before King Princess came on. I was impressed with how well she could sing and made me want to go on Spotify after the show to hear more of her songs. 

Once King Princess came on, everyone was ready. She was the main event for the night, the woman of the hour, the person everyone that night came to see. King Princess came gracefully onto the stage while wearing overalls while taking hits from her juul. Something so fitting for her and it just made me love her even more. She started her set by playing "Make My Bed" on the piano and "Upper West Side" on the guitar after. Some people standing next to me were impressed with how she knew how to play multiple instruments and sing. King Princess had great banter in between songs with some memorable moments being her talking about how she loved how her bandmates kept complimenting each other and her just hitting on random people from the audience. She then played some songs that are new or unreleased. One of them was "House Burn Down", a track that is going to be on her upcoming album.

The riffs on "House Burn Down" were very reminiscent of surf rock and was just fantastic overall. King Princess really knows how to captivate you with her singing. Other new songs she played were "Best Friend", "Sunburn" and "Homegirl". She ended the show with her two biggest hits, "Talia", my personal favorite, and "1950". Earlier in the show, she spoke on how she'll continue to tour in the future and be all old while her fans keep yelling at her to play "1950". While funny, you can't deny how great the song is.

She ended the the show with two encores and i'm sure everyone in the crowd felt satisfied after her set. King Princess was amazing and i'm glad she was the first artist I was able to get to see after a short hiatus from going to shows. I can't wait for her album and she made me turn from a regular fan to a hardcore and loyal one. San Diego may have been the last stop of her tour but I hope it's not the last time she'll perform here.

Written by: Christian Le

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