FKA twigs’ Body High Tour was delayed last year by a host of production-related problems including visa issues, but if anything, the London-based singer only delayed gratification for her “Twiglets.” By the time of her rescheduled Portland appearance on Saturday, April 4, FKA twigs—AKA Tahliah Barnett—was not only promoting her acclaimed album Eusexua, but its sequel, Eusexua Afterglow, which Portland may not have heard had the original tour gone as planned.
Barnett will appear in Anne Hathaway’s A24 pop music thriller Mother Mary later this week. While it wasn’t overtly addressed across the two hours of soaring vocals and bodies, the timing felt ordained nevertheless. Like the show that she brought to Coachella, the Body High Tour’s Portland stop was a fine art pop concert.
Ascending with twigs into the heavens was an energetic opening set by German hyperpop duo Brutalismus 3000, turning Moda Center’s Theater of the Clouds format into an intimate evening among the thousands of attendees (it’s Portland’s second or third largest venue setup, depending on the season and whether or not McMenamins Edgefield is open).
Thematically, the show opened and closed with twigs getting vulnerable, starting her set while singing in a bed and closing with Magdalene single “Cellophane,” standing under artificial snowfall. In between, a squad of dancers surrounded her across five acts, like soldiers of a sexy, futuristic cyber army protecting its general.
The Body High Tour revealed a symbiotic relationship between twigs’ music and dance, especially as she bucked pop tradition by performing off-center stage, drawing the audience’s focus toward her dancers’ moves synced to twigs’ words and arrangements. The light design could have done with less rapid-flashing, but that gripe aside, twigs’ setlist flowed magnificently, allowing her vocals to soar with her and the other dancers’ bodies, whether displaying their athleticism on the pole or using the full range of the stage to showcase Vogue, hip-hop, and other genres of ensemble body movement.
Starting her show in a bed with Magdalene’s “Mirrored Heart” and Caprisongs’ “meta angel,” twigs was visited by dancers crawling out from under the bed like sleep paralysis demons, including one with fairy wings. Gradually waking up, twigs sang songs including the as-of-yet unreleased track “Bluebird.” The (what looked like) Alaska sized king mattress was replaced with translucent runways and interactive, artfully edited livestreamed video footage from the stage. A member of the entourage sounded like they signaled on the mic that Portland is their hometown, but their name proved too difficult to hear—FKA twigs’ team has not responded to Portland Mercury’s email inquiries on the matter.
Cranking up the cardio, backed by a DJ and a live drummer, FKA twigs and company delivered a kinetic show that felt like a Mad Max rave, and not just because of the political temperature outside.
Acts two and three featured intricate group choreography that was sexy in its self-actualization. twigs and her troupe moved their bodies in a way that felt like they were celebrating being alive, vulnerable, and brave together. As platform-mounted silver poles were added to the stage, twigs and another dancer took side stage while most of her entourage carried on at center. The athleticism needed to sing while pole dancing—moving, applying centrifugal force to the human instrument—was stunning to witness.
The fourth act started with a breather as Barnett introduced Eddie Soares, a dancer and musician from Brazil, who sang with her on “Sticky.” When the beat picked back up, the ensemble returned in red and black armor-like costumes, as if twigs was giving the shes, gays, and theys a night at the Thunderdome. Portland returned that energy in kind by dancing and cheering, exciting to see for a sometimes stiff city. The penultimate act seemed to include some of the audience’s favorite songs by reaction: “Stereo Boy,” the unreleased “Phallic by Nature,” “Fallen Alien,” and “Schadenfreude,” which feature some twigs swordplay. Saber-wielding singer-songwriters are so back, baby.
By the end of the night, FKA twigs confessed that a cancelled contract had profoundly shaken her confidence, but that her fans’ support helped her come back stronger. Ending as dreamlike as it began, the cracks in her voice during the “Cellophane” closer felt genuinely emotional, even as pauses during the song were likely sustained for maximum dramatic effect.
Closing on a quieter note instead of firing on all cylinders gently set the audience back to reality—this reality, unfortunately—but the emergence felt easier for the message Barnett gave. The future isn’t guaranteed, so honor and celebrate the body carrying you toward it. And even when it feels like we’re alone, we all really have more support than we sometimes know.