Slayyyter by Kait Muro (Courtesy Photo)
The world sometimes offers inexplicable gifts. When it does, you better seize the opportunity.
That is the case with Slayyyter’s Worst Girl In The World Tour, which is currently making its way through North American venues. The tour offers the opportunity to see one of music’s most electric performers – one whose years of creative and progressive art have resulted in a long overdue 2026 breakout – in intimate venues.
Given her ongoing artistic realization and unquestioned ascent into “it girl” status, Slayyyter is surely headed for larger concert halls and arenas in the very near future. Seeing her in any environment would be a major source of pride in 2026; getting to see her up-close in clubs and small theaters, alongside her most passionately loyal fans, is one of those surprise gifts.
But after experiencing her show at The Van Buren in Phoenix, it is so clear that the value is not restricted to the uniqueness of the opportunity. It is not restricted to the bragging right of getting to see one of the hottest acts in music.
The real value is in getting to see an absolutely exceptional show. It is getting to see an artist that delivers the beautiful contradiction of commanding the stage like a powerful, larger-than-life superstar yet engaging the crowd like a raw, emerging artist still fighting to make her case.
What that contradiction means is that you get an incredibly explosive set – one that feels as much like a rock concert as it does anything the pop lane. As she works through the songs on her breakout “Worst Girl In America” album, she does so with nonstop energy, immense vocal prowess, and the support of a tight backing band. She works the stage, undergoes wardrobe changes, leans into vocal riffs and runs, and makes it undeniably clear you are seeing someone special.
But it also means you get an incredibly honest and authentic one. Slayyyter not only commits to every moment emotionally but performs with a rare, refreshing degree of candor. When wardrobe accessories loosen up, she makes an overt effort to fix them: she does not simply abandon the look in the name of getting back to the music. She is not afraid to restart a song after noticing crowd issues. She does not feign obliviousness at the occasional monitor or vocal issue.
No artist is perfect. But unlike so many of them, Slayyyter has no desire to pretend to be. She does not perform like a robot programmed to recreate a successful album in a highly controlled concert setting.
Rather, she performs like someone with unwavering conviction about being herself. She is who she is. She focuses on what she focuses on. She values what she values. She prioritizes what she prioritizes. And if that is not good enough, fine, but it is the only way she is going to do it.
Fortunately, it was absolutely good enough for those in attendance. Whether there as a new “Worst Girl” era fan or an ardent longtime supporter, all were united by their marvel at what she was doing on stage – and their willingness to express the personal impact of these songs.
As her most accessible song, recent hit “brand new chanel$” naturally caused a significant number of phones and cameras to emerge from bags and pockets. It surely fueled the most live and post-show social content. But that did not hinder the level of engagement, collaborative singing, and enthusiastic dancing and jumping as she worked through the soaring, hard-hitting chorus.
More notably, it was far from the only song to unify an awestruck Phoenix crowd. “Beat Up Chanel$,” which follows “brand new” in the encore, arguably prompted even more crowd excitement. “DANCE …,” the “Crank” duo, and, really, almost everything in the set (including the unreleased “I think he’s got a girl”) resonated the way one would expect a career-defining hit from a Hall of Fame rock band would. This crowd knew these songs. More importantly, this crowd recognized the magic associated with experiencing them live.
Buoyed by pointed songwriting, alluring vocals, and taut instrumentation, Slayyyter’s discography is rich with great records. That so many resonate with her supporters should, of course, come as no surprise.
But the notable takeaway here is that for however great they sound on Spotify, they hit incomparably harder in a concert setting.
An early episode of “How I Met Your Mother” discussed the idea of an “all rise” mixtape, in which the curator focuses on banger after banger rather than a series of rises-and-falls. Slayyyter’s performance style and set development embody that principle, providing a relentless, infectious aura of energy. The show simply never stops; even the brief intermissions (creating individual “acts” and allowing the artist to make the necessary wardrobe changes) featured energy via lighting and the rocking band.
One committed to the art of critical nitpicking may feel compelled to question this lack of set dynamics. Would Slayyyter benefit, they might ponder, from some “come down” moments throughout the set?
One committed to the experience of an unforgettable concert would never express this objection. They would watch Slayyyter command the stage like an absolute force, sing the Hell out of her songs, work the crowd like a legitimate superstar, and ultimately conclude that the “worst girl in the world” delivers one of the world’s best live shows.