Concert Review: Rachel Chinouriri at Empire Garage
Rachel Chinouriri gave a magical performance at Empire Garage on June 7 in Austin.
Written by Mckenna Sefcik
Photos courtesy of Lauren Harris
Content Warning: This article contains mentions of suicide.
UK artist Rachel Chinouriri is known for her glittery outfits, immersive lyricism, and addictive pop-rock tracks. In 2024, she released her debut album, What a Devastating Turn of Events, including standout songs like “All I Ever Asked” and “Never Need Me.” Earlier this year, she warmed up Sabrina Carpenter’s crowds across Europe and the UK as the opener for Carpenter’s ‘Short n’ Sweet’ tour. Soon after, she set off on her ‘All I Ever Wanted Was A North American Tour,’ performing live in North America for the first time. The tour included a stop at Austin’s Empire Garage with opening acts BIZZY and Alemeda.
The night kicked off at 8:00 p.m. with Nashville-based singer-songwriter BIZZY, alongside guitarist Vance Mazure and drummer Jarrod Gipson. BIZZY delivered a six-song set expressing the “roller coaster” of her love life. Her set concluded with a heartfelt performance of her debut single, “Anybody.”
Soon after BIZZY’s set, Alemeda, an indie-alt artist born in Ethiopia and raised in Arizona, emerged to the stage at 8:35 p.m. in a sparkly black outfit. Performing a nine-song set with two unreleased tracks, Alemeda alternated between rock, pop and alternative sounds. She twirled around the stage as she performed an unreleased song, “America’s Next Top Traitor,” a track inspired by the show “America’s Next Top Model,” and her rock anthem, “I already dug your grave,” which elevated the room’s energy as drums and claps brought the song to life. Alemeda’s set concluded with instrumentals from an unreleased track, “Happy With You,” leaving fans eager for Chinouriri’s set.
At 9:33 p.m., the moving instrumentals of “Garden Of Eden,” the opening track of Chinouriri’s debut album, began, and the singer stepped onto the stage wearing a camo top, a white skirt, and her signature sparkly barrettes. Standing up on a platform to take in the packed venue, Chinouriri yelled into the mic, “Hello everyone!” With her contagious smile, warm energy, and instant connection with the audience, the show felt like a long-awaited reunion. Suddenly, the pounding drums of “Cold Call” shifted the energy in the room. “C’mon!” Chinouriri yelled, leading the charged release of emotions in the room as she and the audience sang, “So I won’t take these cold calls anymore / Anymore.”
“You guys are my everything and I love you so much,” Chinouriri exclaimed before she jumped into “My Everything,” a track characterized by its grungy guitar and noisy production. Soon after the song’s abrupt finish, a fan from the barricade loudly shouted the iconic intro to “It Is What It Is” — “Is he okay? Like, is he actually okay?” — before its signature whistle tune filled the venue. In the middle of the song, Chinouriri encouraged the crowd to two step, swaying side to side, embellishing the concert’s whimsical atmosphere. Chinouriri began the next song, “23:42,” by asking the crowd the time before giving a cheerful performance that kept the room howling.
In the first of many heartfelt moments of the night, Chinouriri first thanked both BIZZY and Alemeda for opening the show, and even gave a shout out to a local taco truck, Paprika, that she had discovered earlier in the day. On a more personal note, Chinouriri warmly noted that she is “a Black woman in an indie-pop space,” and that she wants to show other Black women in the crowd that they can pursue their dreams unapologetically. The indie darling extended her next message to everyone in the crowd, thanking them for being her safe space in her artistic journey. She followed her speech with “Even,” her collaboration with Cat Burns inspired by her experience being a Black indie-pop artist. With Alemeda joining her on stage for Burns’ part, their vocals complemented each other perfectly, and the crowd swayed along, clearly touched by the emotional resonance of the track.
Chinouriri then took everyone on “a trip to Herefordshire,” encouraging everyone in the crowd to close their eyes, take deep breaths, and imagine they were the only person in the room. Slowly, soft guitar strums gently filled the room’s silence as the devotional lyrics of “Pocket” began. “I don’t want no one else / I’d like you for myself / You don’t know that you’re the perfect secret I can’t tell,” Chinouriri cooed. Moving into the next song, Chinouriri asked everyone to raise their drinks, and she expressed to one fan: “That better not be juice, girl. You know I’m not a fan of juice — especially not that dumb bitch juice.” The crowd cheered as they recognized the clever transition into the funky R&B track, “Dumb Bitch Juice.”
The set took a more serious turn when Chinouriri dove into the title track of her debut album, What a Devastating Turn of Events, where her heartbreaking storytelling shined as she detailed the true story of her cousin who found out she got pregnant and later died by suicide. The UK singer continued by vulnerably sharing the backstory behind the song “My Blood,” explaining that she hopes this song could “be a healing moment” for others. “It’s my blood that I do this for,” Chinouriri sang as the pink lights from a paper heart fan project reflected onto her. She then performed the gut-wrenching “Robbed,” detailing the painful experience of losing someone: “You were robbed of summer / I was robbed of you.”
In her last speech of the night, Chinouriri acknowledged that one day everyone will “become pictures and videos and recordings” for our loved ones to look back on, urging everyone to “overspend our love on each other.” Holding up her pinky, Chinouriri then asked the crowd to promise her to “tell someone you love them today because tomorrow is never promised.” Soon enough, “I love yous” were whispered throughout the crowd, serving as a seamless transition to the next song, “So My Darling.” Written when she was just 17, the beloved track blanketed the crowd in comfort.
The emotional portion of the concert quickly gave way to catharsis as the distinctive pop-rock grunge intro of “The Hills" filled the room. As the crowd shouted back the lyrics, “When you don’t belong, the hills will know / It’s visible, you don’t belong here,” the hills took on a life of their own in a moment of collective exuberance. Next, “Can We Talk About Isaac?,” a feel-good track about Chinouriri’s boyfriend, had the crowd grooving along to the tune’s upbeat melodies. The singer then stood on the stage’s platform to sing her smash hit, “All I Ever Asked.” The crowd sang along the catchy chorus with Chinouriri: “Just a little more time, is it really that hard to do? / It was all I ever asked of you.” To close the night, Chinouriri ended with the pop hit “Never Need Me,” connecting with the crowd one last time to scream, “Just promise you’ll take it easy / I hope that you never need me.” As the crowd cheered, Chinouriri skipped off stage and left everyone at Empire Garage smiling.
With a magical night full of emotional speeches, clever transitions, and wholesome, intimate moments, Chinouriri showed Austin she is everything we need in an indie-pop star right now. As her North American tour continues, Austin fans will happily wait and welcome her back with open arms, ready to reunite with the talented singer-songwriter.