Olivia Rodrigo leaves them dazzled in first-ever Detroit show at the Masonic

Olivia Rodrigo was just minutes into her inaugural Detroit show Saturday night when she threw her ace on the table.

Moving to a grand piano on the Masonic Temple Theatre stage, she launched into her mammoth hit “Drivers License,” the pop masterwork that helped her become last year’s biggest breakout artist. At one point she urged audience to “sing it!” — but she didn’t have to. The capacity crowd, over the moon and singing along, had already been drowning her out.

So it was all night. Clocking in at just more than an hour, featuring the entirety of her debut album and a pair of cover songs, the concert from the Disney-princess-turned-pop-star was quick but impressive, a showcase from a 19-year-old artist likely to be a big force for years ahead.

Landing in Detroit three weeks into her first major tour, Rodrigo was showcasing the sugar-spiked debut album “Sour,” her half-hour suite of young heartbreak.

Composed and self-aware beyond her years, armed with catchy material marked by vivid, detail-rich songwriting, Rodrigo hit the Masonic with one of the hottest tickets in recent memory.

The show had sold out instantly in December — resellers were peddling seats for $1,000-plus before showtime — and it’s an event that easily could have packed a venue like Little Caesars Arena down the street. Some fans had started lining up outside the Masonic on Friday.

There was an edge-of-the-seat electricity inside the theater. The audience of about 5,000, predominantly female, arrived primed for a big night, an evening of group selfies, handmade signs and shrieks of “I love you!” It was the sort of show where lifetime memories get made: For many of the teens and tweens on hand, this was the first concert with an artist they were truly invested in.

For Rodrigo, nights like Saturday have been a chance to finally manifest that fan bond, a connection she had experienced only from afar as she broke big during the pandemic.

Ahead of her set, oldies by the likes of the Cure and the Breeders played over the PA — a signal we were here for a different sort of teen-pop sensation. Rodrigo is a fan of classic alternative rock, and it shows in her music, where ‘90s guitar tones and other retro flourishes mingle with the 2022 polish.

For all her alt-rock love and the maturity in her ravaged-heart lyrics, there’s a sweetness to Rodrigo’s persona. It’s a touch of earnestness that separates her work from the edgier stylings of a Billie Eilish or the world-weariness of a Lorde. Late in Saturday’s show, she welcomed up a pair of fans, identified as Regina and Emily, who’d come in prom dresses. Rodrigo, herself in a tulle minidress and black boots, adorned them both with prom-queen sashes.

In her 65-minute set, with a five-piece band driving the music behind her, Rodrigo served up a sound much beefier than the finely drawn textures that adorn her album. “Brutal” started the show with a roar, while the lush strings of “Happier” gave way to a squall of electric guitar and “Jealousy, Jealousy” got a big rock kick.

Rodrigo pointed out it had been precisely two weeks ago this night, on the same Masonic stage, that Jack White had gotten married mid-concert. Calling him “one of my heroes,” Rodrigo said she’d just visited his Third Man vinyl-record plant a few blocks away.

More: Jack White gets married onstage after surprise proposal in Detroit concert shocker

In Saturday's high-charged setting, the whispery side of Rodrigo’s voice wasn’t going to work, and she spent much of the show belting out her stuff. Paired with a crowd singing at full voice, it turned the urgent simmer of numbers like “Traitor” and “Déjà Vu” into something a bit more epic.

Only when she stepped up for an acoustic stretch, purple guitar in hand, did the show get a breather. A lovely, pedal-steel-laced “Favorite Crime” soon followed.

The energy finished high, culminating with the punchy, hair-swinging “Good 4 U,” full of slashing guitar and punctuated with the triumphant spray of confetti now obligatory to a modern pop concert.

Rodrigo could certainly be playing far larger venues on this tour, but on Saturday, the Masonic was just right: There was a sizzling, organic charm to the whole affair, and such experiences will serve her well before the productions get sophisticated and the arena stages get big. And no doubt, that’s where we’ll see her next time she's in town.

Contact Detroit Free Press music writer Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or bmccollum@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Olivia Rodrigo leaves them dazzled in first-ever Detroit concert