Join us up front at the second date of Meghan Trainor’s just-launched Untouchable Tour at Seattle’s WaMu Theatre Saturday night: Tweenage girls are ecstatically dancing in the aisle with lit-up princess crowns atop their heads; their moms and dads are bobbing along with zero hesitation; thousands of glow sticks are tomahawking in rhythm in the rafters; a college-age boy in a wheelchair is crying tears of joy; and a 60-something-year-old man up front is thrusting his hands in a love sign like a Young Life counselor high on life. He then plays his glow stick like a saxophone during the horn blasts onstage.
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Trainor, the 22-year-old Nantucket, Massachusetts-born pop upstart, is turning one of the most fervent fan-bases in pop music to full volume. The Megatrons, whatever their age or creed, are 100 percent in it. The singer has a personal intimacy and connection with fans perhaps unrivaled in pop music. Throughout the 90-minute set, Trainor — who won the Grammy for Best New Artist in 2016 behind her debut album, Title — references the things we all have in common: Moms — she honors hers with “Mom,” from new album Thank You: “My momma couldn’t be here tonight because she’s probably doing a million things for me,” said Trainor, sweeping her elegant, black, and glittering gown across the stage. “But I wouldn’t be here without her. Best mom ever!” Then it was dad’s turn: “The legendary Gary Trainor! Tonight is for GT. Dance for your dad, too.” A massive screen onstage showed Meghan and her dad slow dancing at a Grammys after party.
She honored our BFFs: “Scream if you came with your friends,” she hollered before the ‘50s R&B of “Friends,” another Thank You highlight, as pictures of her besties — dancing, partying, goofing off — streamed on screen: “I know we’re about to have a good time / I know everything’s gonna be fine / Because I’ve got all my friends with me,” she sang. It closed with a smokin’ brass solo from her saxophonist and trumpet player. That aforementioned older guy up front, love hand-signs still thrust high, again mimicked the saxophone solo on his flashing light stick.
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Then, of course, Trainor covered a core issue for her and her fans: Matters of the heart. She strummed ukulele and lamented the Friend Zone on “Just a Friend to You”: “Be careful with the words I use / I say it ‘cause I’m dying to / I’m so much more than a friend to you.” She pleaded with and thanked a patient sweetheart on “Calm Me Down,” as her four backup dancers pounded drums covered in glitter, creating a flurry onstage. Later she confessed, “I’m just a hopeless romantic looking for love.” Alone with a guitarist playing bluesy electric riffs, Trainor had her big Adele moment, strutting her vocal talent on “Hopeless Romantic”: “I know you’re somewhere close,” she cooed. In response, a fan yelled out, “But I’m right here!” The crowd chuckled, Trainor blushed, and the ties that bind us all in the sold out, 7,000-capacity venue were pulled a little tighter.
As if to blow off all the emo steam, Trainor dashed off stage for a quick costume change — there were three — and returned shaking her booty in a red dress, four backup dancers following along on her flank: “Shout out to all my exes,” she joked between verses on “I Won’t Let You Down”: “I know you deserve better,” she sang. “From this day on, I won’t let you down.” She was singing to herself and her fans, and urging them to sing it back to themselves.
Her band, a seven-piece ensemble — bass, drums, keys, trumpet, sax, and rhythm and lead guitarists — wore vintage suits, fedoras, and drove a retro-pop, funky-fun sound, decidedly more Amy Winehouse than that of her recorded material. The band brought bounce to “All About That Bass,” her breakout hit that set the tone of self-acceptance and playful pop hooks that have defined Trainor’s career to date. But tonight was all about Thank You, which, she said, was a love letter to the fans that have made her career possible.
“I see your glow sticks out there — I appreciate you,” she shouted before the anthem “I Love Me.”
Trainor’s realness and connection with fans is special, even compared to your KatyCats and Little Monsters. She’s the unlikely pop star — a young artist, outside the preconceived image of a “Pop Star,” signed as a songwriter, who then conquered the charts with her leftfield debut. If she can do it, so can you. Thank You builds on the relationship. We’re all a little lost in love and in life. But anything’s possible. Trainor makes it all a little easier by letting us know we’re not alone.
For “Thank You,” special Megatrons — including several tweenage birthday girls and boys, and another wheelchair bound fan — danced onstage as red confetti fell from above.
“No, thank you,” yelled one young fan as the lights at last went dark. “Thank you!”
Set list:
Intro
“Woman Up”
“Watch Me Do?/Me Too”
“Dear Future Husband”
“Lips Are Movin'”
“Mom”
“Dance Like Yo Daddy”
“All About That Bass”
“Friends”
“Good To Be Alive”
“Kindly Calm Me Down”
“Hopeless Romantic”
“Just a Friend to You”
“Like I’m Gonna Lose You”
“Bang Dem Sticks”
“Throwback Love/ I Love Me”
“Champagne Problems”
“I Won’t Let You Down / 1 Dance / Better”
“Thank You”
“No”