On Wednesday night at the Anthem, Olivia Rodrigo opened her sold-out show the same way she opened her debut album, “Sour,” with the loud-quiet-loud “Brutal.” The song is a litany of problems and preoccupations rife with feelings of anxiety, inadequacy and self-doubt. Its sneering chorus leads not to a bang but a whimper: “God, it’s brutal out here.”
Judging by the rapturous reaction of the crowd — some younger than the 19-year-old singer-songwriter, most older, and almost entirely female — Rodrigo is onto something. It is brutal out here, even for people who aren’t pop stars dealing with the dual cruelties of teendom and the music business. On a planet ravaged by climate change, a global pandemic, powder-keg wars and the rise of fascism, what is an inability to parallel park but an insult added to injury?
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