Over the excited chatter of the concertgoers, the drone of an air pump filled the room. The audience gazed up at the sage in bewilderment as drummer Ross Murakami cranked the pump into an air mattress, which slowly puffed up by the minute. The “set” was not complete yet as Murakami brought out a plethora of little cushions, a fuzzy rug and stuffed animals, with the audience cheering and clapping for the plush axolotl he placed on the guitar amp.
With pink fluffy decorations, the fully-puffed bed and the audience screaming in anticipation, the Vinyl’s stage was set on Tuesday, March 14, for Tiffany Day’s “Gratitude” tour supported by Alex Porat.
During the opener, Porat played some of her biggest hits like “HATELOVE,” “Kiss Face,” “Pity Party” and “miss sick world.” Posing and gracefully dancing along to the music, Porat got the audience moving along with her. During “HATELOVE,” the overhead lights washed the audience in red, mimicking her bright red album art for the single. During “Sensitive,” her 2022 single, a sort of aching echoed through Porat’s voice, giving the audience a similar sense of longing.
“I hate that I’m so sensitive all the time/ I can’t say what’s on my mind/ even though I always try/ I just wanna cry,” Porat sang, putting lyrics to the frustrating feeling of being too sensitive for your own good.
The crowd synergized with the beat and with the lyrics, with dedicated fans mouthing the words to every song and straining forwards to feel even closer to the music. As Porat thanked the audience once again and twirled off the stage, the crowd grew even louder in anticipation of Day, knowing the night was still young.
As soon as Day appeared on stage, the audience was electrified. She ran onto the stage, jumping up and down and energetically greeting Atlanta. The audience screamed wildly in response, waving their hands in the air as she immediately jumped into performing “DREAMS ABT OPTIMISM,” one of the songs from her newest album, “THE GRATITUDE PROJECT,” which inspired the theme and motivation for the tour. Day’s sound is characterized by fast-paced, catchy electronic music that ranges from indie pop to hyperpop and even includes tinges of dubstep. With the energy of her personality and the music fueling it, the crowd truly came to life.
Smiling giddily and turning her guitar on, Day moved on and played some of her other top songs like “CALONE” and “SHOULD I BE OK?”. When Day performed “HANNA,” a song about wishing you were someone else — wishing you were someone to be yearned for — in order to finally gain the love of your significant other, some fans began tearing up, as the emotion of the song poured through Day’s voice. Day’s stage presence made it feel like she was practically part of the crowd as she leaned forward into the audience — pushed and pulled — and made eye contact while she sang, creating an intimate and otherworldly listening experience. “HANNA” reminds Day’s fans that they are all the same in the end — everyone yearns for love, and have sometimes had to unfairly sacrifice parts of themselves to gain the same love in return.
“I just want you to love me like her / Damn I’ve never felt so insecure, it’s a curse, and / I’m not doing okay,” Day sang to the audience, with audience members almost crying along to the emotional lyrics.
About halfway through the show, Day’s drummer Murakami took a short break, but the show barreled on without skipping a beat. Day took the mic, saying, “recently, you know, I’ve had a little time on my hands … so I kinda got into dubstep,” laughing through the mic along with the audience. Almost like a switch flipped, the stage lights flicked to a deep red, creating a supernatural feeling that snapped back to reality as Day suspensefully donned a pair of sunglasses, put on headphones and transformed the venue into a rave, DJ-ing the audience through her newest beat. The venue transformed into a club, with Day soaking in the energy of the crowd as the audience jumped in sync to the beat, hands pumping in the air while Day danced on stage, hyping up the beat drops.
Suddenly, the venue was silent, as if the power was cut. In the midst of dancing, it seemed that Day has accidentaly flung her MacBook off of the stage, and the USB playing the music was thrown somewhere on the stage in the chaos. A fan in the front scooped the MacBook off the ground and gracefully handed it up to Day, and she resumed the music immediately. The fan started dancing to the beat as if nothing ever happened. The only sign of the incident was the the laughter radiating from both Day and the audience.
“Did anyone get a video of that?,” Day yelled out to the crowd through laughter. “Last time I [messed] up at a concert, it went [totally] viral on TikTok, so whoever has the recording, send it to me, so ya girl can post it!” The fans in the front enthusiastically nodded, pumping their hands in support.
After the intermission, Day moved on to play “SPOILED B****,” which is an anthem of sorts for getting and knowing what you want, being impulsive and owning yourself. At this point, the crowd was practically chanting along with the song in anticipation of the beat drop when Day would whirl, jump and headbang about the stage while moving to the beat of the song, cueing for the audience to move with her, making the drops a truly dynamic, fresh experience. During the second verse, Day dropped to her knees, almost rapping along to the song before springing back up and dancing into another beat drop, keeping the energy high through the entirety of her performance.
In songs such as “BITE BACK,” Day started off creating suspense for which song would be next by turning her back to the audience, letting the lights illuminate her silhouette and then breaking out into song as the intro of the next track dropped. “BITE BACK” is a song about not needing a relationship anymore and biting back when that person is the problem in the relationship. A “trap-inspired track” according to Genius, the quick-tempo beat drops were accompanied by bursts of choreographed dance moves by Day, which had the audience dancing, singing and chanting to hype her up.
“You better believe I practiced that choreography,” she joked at the end of the song, before immediately jumping into one of her first songs to go viral titled “IF I DON’T TEXT YOU FIRST,” which was a fan-favorite.
One of the most memorable moments of the night was when Day gave a short speech, saying, “Thank you for all the love and support; I appreciate it so much. I’m not making money from this tour,” continuing to say that she loves all her fans and letting fans know that they can buy her merchandise if they want to directly support her, but also that just by coming out to the show, they’ve made the tour worth it. She directly transitioned into “HEART TO HEART IN THE TATTOO PARLOR,” which can be considered a direct thank you to her fans and is the final song in “THE GRATITUDE PROJECT.” The fans quieted at times, as if taking a moment let the
moment wash over them.
“You get tattoos of all my songs / You know the answers … I’m digits deep before my credit card gets canceled / But I did it all for you, so we could see the moment through,” Day sang to the audience, referring to her tour that she paid for out-of-pocket. She committed to the tour to show her fans the gratitude that the project is meant to embody.
“Thankful for the things that I’ve been given … You’re the theory to my purpose / And I hope you know I’d never take / Your love for granted, you,” she sang. Each time she sang “you,” she pointed to someone in the audience, made eye contact and sang straight to them, making sure
her lyrics came through.
All in all, the night was a magical experience. From Day’s sonic journey through “THE DEPENDENCY PROJECT,” “THE RENEWAL PROJECT” and now “THE GRATITUDE PROJECT,” her transformation is clear and genuine through her music. Day’s latest album and tour gave her audience the experimental and iconic pop “Tiffany Day” sound and concert experience that her fans follow her for.