Arlo Parks Drapes Observatory North Park in an Ambiguous Purple Haze of Desire

On Monday, September 14th, Arlo Parks brought the DESIRE tour to San Diego, bringing her indie bedroom pop dance music to Observatory North Park, with opening act BAIRD. The two have been collaborators since BAIRD worked on a few tracks from Parks’ album, My Soft Machine.

Her newest album, Ambiguous Desire, released earlier this year in April. The album encompasses her most confident work, lyrics reflecting on feeling peace in vulnerability, and experiencing healthy, soft love. The production on the album contains a depth of feeling that becomes the perfect place for the softer, vulnerable lyrics to land.

The room started to fill as opening act BAIRD took the stage. He had a confident and measured presence, his body and mind fully dropped into the music, swaying with the sound of the music and each strum of distortion. He played the song “Dogpile,” his most recent release and first release since 2022, as well as some unreleased songs that seemed like the most fun for him to play. With a simple stage decoration of bird shaped metal cut outs hanging on simple chains, that would reflect the spotlights shining from behind them. Baird played guitar and would then shift mid song to the keyboard, and with the lively drummer, it created such a layered live performance.

When Arlo Parks hit the stage, she worked the DJ booth, opening the set by creating a sonic atmosphere of vibrancy, lightness, and openness. The bluish red hazy lights blanketed the stage and the crowd in a feeling of freedom and open expression, as her soft vocals float above the synth pop production. The low beats and soft thrumming bass makes a perfect place for the lyrics to land. The lights turned to purple for her song “Purple Phase,” in a lavender fog as she sings, “I just want to see her iridescent, charming cats down from trees.” Parks’ writing is thoughtful and visual as it gently brings you into her world. She beams and spins across the stage singing “Pegasus,” about finding tranquility in healthy love. She asks the audience to dance, and they oblige, two girls on the barricade jumping and head banging like it’s the best night of their lives. There are couples dancing together, swaying back and forth, the room a warm, loving atmosphere enhanced by Parks’ cinematic and large looming soundtrack.