Review: Lizzo is full of ‘Real Love’ in homecoming-like First Avenue underplay gig

In a word: special.

The title of her last album and the second-to-last song she sang Tuesday, “Special” pretty well summed up Lizzo’s entire concert at First Avenue — an overjoyed underplay gig that was equal parts homecoming and comeback.

Yes, the setting was special. Not only was the venue 1/10th the size of where Lizzo typically plays. It was the venue that helped her become famous after Prince made it famous. She performed many of her earliest gigs there and in the adjoining 7th St. Entry in the early 2010s, during her near-decade of living in Minneapolis.

After a subsequent decade of racking up platinum records and Grammys and selling out arenas like Xcel Energy Center (the site of her last local gig in 2022), it was about damn time the 36-year-old singer and rapper revisited her roots — if only to finally get her own star painted on the club’s iconic alumni wall.

Lizzo fought back tears onstage as she talked about the new star.

“You don’t know how much that [expletive] means to me,” she said, recounting her many shows there going back to the first time she heard her name chanted with her old group the Chalice.

“Y’all saw my worth every single time.”

There was a lot more meaning and emotion tied to Tuesday’s performance than just the reunion between the artist and venue, though.

For starters, the hourlong set seemed to indicate Lizzo is ready to follow Prince’s lead and blend elements of guitar-heavy rock into her funky R&B sounds.

She took the stage with a pink six-string around her neck and her all-woman five-piece band behind her (dubbed “the Lizzbos”). They cranked through the Blondie-ish opening song “Love in Real Life,” the new single and title track from an album due out later this year. Two songs later — with Lizzo still rocking the guitar — they spiked her salacious Cardi B collaboration “Rumors” with a few bars of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”

Looking like a cross between Chaka Khan and Olivia Rodrigo dressed in a leather jacket, plaid miniskirt and fishnets, Lizzo eventually put the guitar down to twerk and sashay alongside two dancers through a couple of her grindiest songs, “Boys” and “Tempo.”

Working on a much smaller stage than other recent tours, Lizzo seemed extra-focused on her vocal delivery. That made for soaring mid-show versions of “Good as Hell” and “Cuz I Love You” — each loudly accompanied by the extra-ecstatic sold-out crowd.

That’s when things got really special.

Introducing another new song, “Still Bad,” Lizzo opened up about going through a dramatic and dark stretch that led to her bowing out of the spotlight through almost all of 2024. Her name became headline fodder following lawsuits from former associates and rampant online bashing. At one point, she posted on Instagram, “I quit.”

“I wrote it as a breakup song to the world,” she said of the disco-grooved new song. “I think we all want to break up with the world right now with everything going on.”

“Still Bad” still boasted a Lizzo-cheeky lyrical tone: “I don’t need him / I need a drink,” she sang. “Let’s turn this pain into champagne.”

The emotions kept pouring as she got to “Special,” which she introduced by explaining the title of her new album. It was inspired by a giant group hug she got after being spotted in public by fans during her emotional downturn.

“You can’t find that kind of love on the internet,” she said. “You can only get it in real life.”

As she finished with Grammys’ 2023 record of the year winner, “About Damn Time,” it became apparent Tuesday’s concert was essentially another big group hug for Lizzo — this one from 1,500 fans who clearly still know her worth.