There is a version of a “That Bass Tour” review that centers exclusively on Meghan Trainor’s skill as a performer. It reveals that Trainor’s energy is so infectious that no audience member — whether a pre-teen “Megatron” or a cynical, adult journalist — can resist dancing along. It reveals that Trainor’s voice cuts more effectively in person than it does on the recording. It reveals that Trainor’s performance style is tautly constructed but never without soul.
That review concludes by declaring Trainor’s concert a fun, engaging, high-quality trip through her catalog of irresistible tunes.
It does not, however, capture the complete essence of the experience.
What makes “That Bass Tour” special is the same thing that so easily and powerfully spurred Meghan Trainor’s meteoric rise within the mainstream music world. It is the singer-songwriter’s unique and meaningful connection with her audience.
For many artists, the concept of “connecting” merely refers to a performance technique. Reduced from a statement of identity into a form of strategy, “connecting” involves consciously playing to the crowd and pandering to its sensibility. It allows the performer to signal her awareness of and appreciation for the audience, but it does not establish a legitimate closeness. It is a mirage.
Not for Meghan Trainor. Guided by whom she is rather than by whom she feels she needs to be, Trainor projects an undeniable and unwavering sense of sincerity.
As a result, no wall separates Trainor from her passionate, enthusiastic contingent of fans. From the moment she takes the stage with “Dear Future Husband” to the moment she exits with “All About That Bass,” the 21-year-old singer-songwriter is an open, honest, accessible book.
Refreshingly real and without any hint of condescension or pretentiousness, Trainor gives her audience ample reason to trust every lyric, accept every verbal aside and believe every dance move. They know they are seeing a true person rather than a boardroom construction or disconnected celebrity.
When she launched “All About That Bass,” Trainor was not a prototypical pop star imposing a hollow message of empowerment onto the general public. She, as one of the countless individuals actually deemed conventionally imperfect, was flipping the script and declaring that her supposed imperfections are actually advantages. She ain’t no size two, but that’s okay, because boys like a little more booty to hold at night. An ambassador for the underdog, she was leading by example rather than by empty declaration.
Extraordinarily talented, the Trainor of “That Bass Tour” is still the same ordinary girl whose songs have empowered so many girls, boys, women and men to take pride in who they are and how they look because of who they are and how they look.
Completely one with the crowd, she is singing on behalf of her audience rather than to them. She is dancing with her fans rather than for them.
Quite literally, in fact. Late in the set, Meghan Trainor shifts the focus from her own music to Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’ “Uptown Funk.” Neither an attempt at a vocal cover nor a means of welcoming Mars a special guest, the shift is simply an opportunity for Trainor to dance.
As the audience members see Trainor rock out to the recording (with live accompaniment from her backing band), they see a superstar enjoying “Uptown Funk” in the same carefree way they do at parties, in their cars and even in front of their mirrors. They see an artist whose goal is not simply to put on a fun show for a paying crowd but to have her own fun.
Contagious, that sense of fun keeps the audience engaged for the duration of Trainor’s “That Bass Tour” set.
Singles “Dear Future Husband,” “Lips are Movin” and “All About That Bass” have the crowd furiously dancing and singing from start to finish. Energetic album track “Bang Dem Sticks” works the crowd into a frenzy that reaches its apex when Trainor’s drummer, naturally, bangs his drum sticks in a brief, yet hard-hitting solo.
The content of “3am” and “Walkashame” might not be immensely relatable to the younger portion of Trainor’s fanbase, but one would have no idea based on the excitement that fills the entirety of the venue. Fan favorites “Close Your Eyes,” “Like I’m Gonna Lose You,” “Credit” and “Title” (performed on her ukulele with modest accompaniment) demonstrate the admirable diversity of her catalog and the undeniable breadth of her appeal. Those in attendance are not simply “All About That Bass” — they are all about Meghan Trainor.
Songs like “No Good For You” and “My Selfish Heart” are neither standouts of the album nor the live show, but their strategic placement within the set assures they do not eradicate any momentum. And insofar as Trainor is wholeheartedly committed to each number, the songs that are weak by comparison still come across as objectively impressive.
While music — and Trainor’s commitment to that music — makes “That Bass Tour” more than worth the price of admission, Trainor’s hourlong show is a complete one. In addition to the aforementioned dance break, Trainor introduces her numbers with enough insight to provide context, establish familiarity and build an audience rapport but not so much that she risks tempering the music-loving crowd’s enthusiasm.
A highlight of the gig, meanwhile, comes at the midway point. Passionate about her fans, obsessed with fun and fluent in social media speak, Trainor introduces a lucky audience member as her “queen” for the evening (Bella, a young female fan, was crowned queen at Trainor’s March 15 show at New York’s Irving Plaza).
An infinitely endearing moment, the “ceremony” involves an affable Trainor fashioning her queen with a light-up crown and then leading the fan in a brief, on-stage dance routine. Not at all faked or mechanical — even though Trainor crowns a queen at each show — the bit warms the hearts of the audience as it makes the lucky queen’s night.
“That Bass Tour” is not without fodder for cynics and skeptics. Trainor’s set includes a few minor instrumental shifts and vocal ad libs, but the key songs are generally performed as they are on the record. Her choreography might not reek of lifeless rigidity, but it is still very mechanical and neatly conceived. The show, ultimately, is a very safe, mainstream and innocuous one.
But it is for those very reasons that Trainor’s sincere artistry and immense relatability mean more to the success than her undeniably strong performance mechanics. “That Bass Tour” does not provide Trainor with unlimited room to work, but her personality that is simultaneously larger-than-life and down-to-earth never fails to shine through. Her belief in her music never fails to shine through. Her wholehearted stylistic commitment to retro and contemporary pop — which draws from other influences but never feels derivative — never fails to shine through. Her authenticity never fails to shine through.
“That Bass Tour” is very much a mainstream pop concert, and Meghan Trainor very much possesses the skillset of a mainstream pop star. But the unmissable handprint she leaves on every piece of the final product and undeniable audience rapport she cultivates at every moment of the journey combine to create a truly unique and memorable experience. They combine to create a Meghan Trainor concert that is as fresh, distinct and resonant as Meghan Trainor’s music.
Trainor’s “That Bass Tour” concludes in Nashville this weekend, but her attention will soon shift to the upcoming “M Train Tour.” If the impressive “That Bass Tour” show represents a starting point for the improved experience the ambitious Trainor wants to create on the “M Train Tour,” fans should make concrete plans to go. It will likely be can’t miss.
That Bass Tour – Set List
March 15 – Irving Plaza – New York, NY
Dear Future Husband
Mr. Almost
Credit
No Good for You
Title
Walkashame
Close Your Eyes
3am
Like I’m Gonna Lose You
Bang Dem Sticks
Uptown Funk (Dance break)
My Selfish Heart
Lips are Movin
ENCORE
What if I
All About That Bass
