“I’m dressed like a vagina!” Raffaella Meloni said to her friend Samia on FaceTime while onstage at Fine Line on Thursday evening. Raffaella called Samia to introduce their collaborative song, “Man of Your Dreams,” before jumping into character to prance around the stage with doll-like mannerisms, similar to those of the Polly Pocket pictured on the bass drum of Jon Lindquist’s percussion set-up. The highly theatrical performance on her debut headline tour continued for the majority of the sugar rush of a pop-rock-fueled evening. 

The New York-raised, Minnesota-based artist wore a mini, sheer, lacy, pink, slip dress, “Raffaella” necklace, hair bow, beaded bracelets, and no shoes. Her approach was “funny, but not too funny” on stage. She told The Current’s Diane, “When you think about it, you’re just on a stage and you’re just singing songs, people are listening and it’s just such a silly profession, but it’s also the most meaningful thing in the world.” Diane asked where the inspiration to be a little bit goofy on stage comes from. “Taking yourself seriously is just like inherently terrifying, so it’s definitely a defense mechanism, the humor,” Raffaella said. “But I also think it’s nice. Catharsis exists in humor and sadness, and you know, scary movies.”

The sardonic nature of most of the performance was amplified by a few songs in succession toward the end of the set. (Think Taylor Swift in “Blank Space,” or pop newcomer Chappell Roan). In “Polly Pocket,” Raffaella sarcastically sang, “Ooh, ooh, ooh, baby one, two, three / Got a Polly in my pocket and she looks like me / And my very best friend is my IUD / And I know I'm picking one of them eventually.” She dedicated “BLONDE” to “a neighbor who used to be addicted to crystal meth” and dug the irony deep with, “You would be a lot sluttier if you were blonde / You'll kiss somebody and they're gonna get mad at you.” And “GROWN UP” came with exaggerated elated and frantic facial expressions and the words, “I'm grown up now, I buy my groceries at the grocery store / Living rich even though I'm poor / I'm just trying to make people love me.” 

Raffaella studied theater growing up, and it’s coming in handy for her now with songs that fixate on the reimagination of youthful femininity. Her exuberant energy grew with each spin, ballet bow, and graceful sway across the stage. She wiggled hips and rolled shoulders while serving sultry side-eye glances to the tune of “Bardot,” a song about the actress/singer/model Brigitte Bardot, who she called an “incredibly hot person.” Raffaella’s strong vocals, which sometimes included backing vocal recordings, floated lightly on top of the cozy tune. Ultimately, Raffaella’s words and movements could be seen as sarcastically self-infantilizing, but the “child of divorce” T-shirts at the merch table hint that it’s all for fun.

One stage-banter joke came with the explanation of “LIPSTICK,” a song about kissing a friend too many times. “I used to be gay. I mean, I guess I still am. I’m passively gay. I’m actively bisexual? I don’t know how this works,” Raffaella joked. “Give it up for bisexuals! Everybody is bisexual. If you’re straight, you’re not.” I, at least, didn’t get the joke. 

What was a bit humorous, in context, was a cover of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Maps.” Raffaella welcomed her partner, Hippo Campus lead singer Jake Luppen, to the stage with a passionate kiss, met with screams from fans. The singer dressed in sweatpants and hoodie looked lovingly at his partner between embraces, but still had time for one flash of the tongue at the crowd. Isaac Dell’s guitar solo held the song together. (After the show, I asked the person who came with me for their thoughts, and the first thing that came to mind was a strange feeling watching partners cover a song about unrequited love.) 

Dell also performed with the local opener Why Not, who provided the most sonically gripping moments of the evening. With the release of their self-titled album in 2022 and more recently released singles, Why Not has found their sound — one that’s difficult to pinpoint. For a trio composed of guitarist Dell, bassist Henry Breen, and drummer Josh MacGregor, an “indie rock” label doesn’t feel quite right. The music sometimes brings art-pop catchiness with an air of punk, but it’s not pop-punk either. The occasional feel of emo rock occasionally pops up in a mix that includes synthesizer and heavy reverb. Their songs’ catchy hooks always cut through the walls of noise. Maybe “joyous, danceable rock” music would work. “RIGHT NOW” included intentional guitar screeches, heavy bass lines, and drums pounding with fizz. The band is at their best, carrying humble confidence, and sharing their own take on childhood innocence with the euphoric song “IN LOVE WITH THE SOUND.”

Not all of Raffaella’s set was silly and upbeat. The most undoubtedly sincere words Raffaela shared were about Mayday Health, a reproductive health education service providing abortion medication to those with limited access. A QR code for donations and education resources sat at the merch table.

Raffaella calls Act II of LIVE, RAFF, LOVE, released this year, more earnest than Act I. Reflecting on spending much of 2021 in her bedroom and gazing at the Milky Way projected onto her ceiling, Raffaella prefaced, “Millennial” by saying, “This next song is about depression, feeling like you’re getting older and you should be better than you are.” Songs like “Rowan,” about underage assault, and “Fcking Smiling” about a friendship ending, were the occasional moments of sadness. 

The “Rowan” music video begins with a quote from poet Louise Glück, “We look at the world once, in childhood. The rest is memory.” Glück seems to say our blank-slate way of seeing when we were children was when we were the purest. The years since then — "the rest" — is when we search for humor to get us through the hard times. If Raffaella can find joy and humor in her theatrical Polly Pocket performance style, maybe that’s all that matters. 

Raffaella

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Setlist

Gush

Bardot

Millennial

Fcking Smiling

Man of Your Dreams

Untitled

Bone

LIPSTICK

BUICK

Rowan

Maps (Yeah Yeah Yeahs) 

Polly Pocket

BLONDE

GROWN UP

Encore

drama queen.