At Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion, the air feels heavy with anticipation. It’s the kind of night where emotions sit close to the surface, and that’s exactly how Lauren Spencer Smith likes it.
Before she steps onstage, rising artist Maisy Kay features a cover of Kate Bush’s ‘Running up that Hill in her set that gets the largely female crowd in the moving.
Charismatic Henry Moodie gets hearts racing with a polished, emotional set (and a promise of a headline tour) that sets the tone for what’s to come: an evening devoted to feeling everything, out loud.
When Spencer Smith appears, the roar is instant. The stage features a white bench and telephone whose ringing signals the start of her set. Spencer Smith is dressed in a blue shirt and tie and black Adidas trousers; her long plaits whip around her face as her impressive voice fills the Hordern.
The UK-born, Canada-raised singer commands the stage with an openness that feels disarming. There’s no attempt to disguise her intensity — she wears it like a badge. Every lyric, every note feels like it’s been lived through and wrestled with. She once described her process as “running toward the feelings most people run from,” and tonight, that fearlessness radiates from the stage.
Touring her sophomore record The Art of Being a Mess, Spencer Smith turns private chaos into communal catharsis. Her voice — soaring and raw — transforms anxiety, heartbreak, and hope into something strangely unifying. Between songs, she laughs easily with the crowd, her warmth cutting through the weight of her words. The set becomes less about perfection and more about connection.
It’s hard to believe that just a few years ago, Spencer Smith was uploading songs from her bedroom on Vancouver Island. Her rise — from viral breakthrough Fingers Crossed to Platinum-certified hits Flowers and That Part — is a story built not on spectacle, but on honesty. Onstage, she’s exactly as she seems in her music: unfiltered, relatable, and entirely present.
The tour moves to Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth next. Tickets HERE.
Images Deb Pelser
