Slayyyter is Actually Kind of Famous, and It’s Amazing
Malaya Santella ’30/Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer
On her Wor$t Girl in America world tour, at her night 1 stop in Boston, Slayyyter changed my life. The tour is named after her third studio album, during which Slayyyter makes 41 stops across Europe, South America and North America. She stops for multiple nights in Chicago, Sydney, Melbourne, LA, Boston and our shared hometown St. Louis, Missouri. I was blessed with a free ticket a couple months ago, gifted by my girlfriend, who also holds credit for all photos featured. Under the stage name Slayyyter, 30 year old Cathrine Garner has been releasing music since 2018, but only recently has she started to catch the eye of the public. With hits such as “CRANK” and “BEAT UP CHANEL$”, Wor$t Girl in America spent one week on the charts, peaking at 17th, sky rocketing her to mainstream fame. This fame has caused almost all of her future tour dates to be entirely sold out, aside from her four dates in Australia. Currently with a Spotify monthly listening of 9.5 million, Slayyyter is following in the footsteps of SOPHIE and Charli XCX as a pioneer in the genre of hyperpop.
The Boston stops of the tour, hosted at Roadrunner, occurred on the first and second day of the Nor’easter that was projected to ravage the West Coast. We waited around all day to see if the stop would be cancelled due to inclement weather, but Slayyyter and her team powered through it so we did too. Arriving an hour early to get a good spot close to the barrier, the general admissions line was already down the block. There were wind gusts up to 50 MPH and it was practically raining sideways. After everyone’s amazingly themed outfits were thoroughly soaked through, security finally let us in. The air inside the venue was slightly damp, hot, and crowded, but the energy was absolutely electric, so none of that really mattered. Standing around for roughly another 30 minutes, talking to all of the strangers around us and getting up on our tip-toes to see the stage, the opener finally strolled on stage. Pearly Drops, a Finnish indie electropop duo known for their hit “Bloom For Me”, opened up for Slayyyter in the US and for a couple of her UK stops. After their 30 minute set was over they gained a new fan in both me and my girlfriend. Songs like “Call for Help”, “Forester”, and “Ratgirl” all joined my expansive playlist upon the ending of their set.
A little past 9pm, the beautifully church-esque musings of the song “*PRAYER*” swept through the venue. I personally haven’t had any religious experinces in my lifetime, but hearing that song live might’ve been my first. Surrounded by the Queer hyperpop community of the Boston area, I was overcome by the scent of sweat, weed and poppers, contradicting the religious sensation felt post “*PRAYER*”. The cold white lights strobed as the song “DANCE…” pounded through the speakers and in my chest, feeling unlike any other concert I had ever attended. The best way to describe it is when you see those exaggerated party scenes in college movies, with the flashing lights, overpowering music and sweaty young adults, but the characters are all having the time of their lives despite it all.
Listening to Wor$t Girl in America is a cinematic experience alone, but hearing it live transports you to a place that can seldom be recreated or described. Along with all of the songs of Wor$t Girl in America, she also sang “BROKE BITCH FREESTYLE”, “crank 2”, “and brand new chanel$”, lead singles of the brother album to WGIA, Wor$t Man in America. She also sang a version of the song “BIRDS” by Turnstile, another artist who has recently found mainstream fame. I spent the bulk of the concert screaming my heart out and in a trance of the sheer beauty of Slayyyter herself, the phenomenal music and the aggressive concert lighting. Somehow the concert passed in a daze, by the time I was back in my body she was already onto her encore songs, “BEAT UP CHANEL$” and “brand new chanel$”. These songs, being the most anticipated of the night by almost the entire crowd, threw the crowd back into the world of Slayyyter after her short break. If you haven’t heard the absolutely incredible songs that are “BEAT UP CHANEL$” and “brand new chanel$”, you need to and should listen to the entirety of Wor$t Girl in America and then come back to finish reading this article so you can have a sliver of understanding of what it would be like to hear such songs live. As expected, the encore was transformative in every sense of the word and the end of the concert left a pit in my chest. Those not among the few fortunate enough to see her in person during this ongoing tour are heavily encouraged to stream all of her music and to watch her lollapalooza set, which is available on youtube.