A Night At The Pink Pony Club: Chappell Roan’s Celebratory Conclusion to Her Sold-Out Naked In North America Tour

Photo by Ryan Clemons

For the past few months, I have been voraciously consuming every morsel of content I could about Chappell Roan’s Naked in North America Tour. I just missed out on tickets when the tour went live back in November - the Los Angeles date sold out within the first week or so. I had all but lost hope in attending when, out of the blue, the Unpublished team reached out and asked me to cover - to which my exact, highly eloquent and professional,  response was “UR KIDDING UM YES.”

So, on Wednesday, March 15th, I was lucky enough to see Chappell Roan live at The Fonda - the closing performance of her Naked in North America Tour. Like every other show of the tour thus far, there was a dress code for the audience. So, when I pulled up to the venue right around doors time, there was a line going nearly a block down Hollywood Boulevard filled with Chers’, Dua Lipas’, Madonnas’, SZAs’, and more. Everyone showed up and showed out for Chappel.

I made it inside the venue right as the first opening performers were taking the stage. Rather than have the traditional billed opening artist act, Roan opens each so with a trio of local drag performers. The first drag artist to take the stage was LA-county’s own Missile Aneous. To follow with the night’s theme of “Dress As Your Fave Pop Star,” Aneous donned the iconic blue wig and candy-colored costume of the iconic “Teenage Dream” era Katy Perry. She lip-synced to classics such as “I Kissed A Girl,” “Peacock” and, of course, “Teenage Dream.” Next up was Aiana Shaw who strutted her stuff to the sounds of seminal queer-female pop artists such as Rina Sawayama and Lady Gaga. The closer, La Kelly Ru, took a more theatrical route with her performance. Ru’s set had a demonic-antichrist theme. She lip-synced to the Fairuza Balk monologue from the 1996 film, The Craft. Her set even culminated with the now-TikTok famous “I’ma put her in a dungeon under, under” verse of Nicki Minaj’s Roman Holiday cut to the “Come All Ye Faithful” interpolation performed with intense precision, ending with a full jump-split. It was the campy, satirical spectacular we crave. By the end of the drag performances, the audience was practically foaming at the mouth. 

During the twenty-minute-ish intermission between the drag artists and Chappell Roan, the industry started to flood in through the back. If you’re a regular in the LA music scene, you’ll know that this is a typical performance. Always, at the very last minute, the industry insiders, donned in all black and leather, will shuffle in at the back, never more than a few feet from the bar. However, only a handful donned the traditional uniform. A grand majority of the industry insiders had committed to the pop-star theme to the same level as the fans in the pit. I saw several Brittany Spears’, David Bowies’, and even a Harry Styles or two. Even those who weren’t dressed as a particular artist were dressed in bright colors, sequins, and pearls. It goes to show how deep the excitement for Roan and her music runs. 

Without even a hint of a warning, all of the lights cut to black. After a beat, a purple-blue wash of light spread over the stage, reflecting like ocean water on the silver-streamer backdrop. Then, the generic voice machine “leave a message after the tone” line booms from the God speakers. After the expected beep, the “Naked In Manhatten” voice recording prompts the entire theater to start up in a frenzy. The drums hadn’t even started, and everyone had already started jumping and dancing. When Chappell and her band finally came onstage? With Roan dressed as Hannah Montana and her band costumed as Lana Del Rey, David Bowie, and Avril Lavigne no less? It was pandemonium. 

Roan kicked off the show with three hits back to back to back - “Naked In Manhattan” into “Love Me Anyway” into “Femininomenon.” The party just got crazier with each song. By the time “Femininomenon” came along, I saw audience members doing everything from twerking to fully crying tears of joy. Both responses, I believe, come from the safe, inclusive feel of the environment. Roan’s music has become a refuge for queer people, particularly queer women. Everyone in that crowd that night let loose because they knew they were amongst their own. They were in a place where they felt understood and supported. That unity and unbridled joy were extra evident during the call-and-response bridge of “Femininomenon.” As Roan asked the audience if they received the pleasure and respect from men they deserved, the audience roared back in complete unison “NO!” It was a call for change. A call for revolution. A call for a ‘Femininomenon.’ 

This highly-charged energy was sparked by the intense feelings of the first few songs carried throughout the rest of the night, even with the middle section of the show featuring almost entirely un-released songs. However, if you weren’t familiar with Roan, you would think these tracks were long-beloved classics. During the chorus of the unreleased song “Hot To Go,” Roan spells out the title, letter by letter, both verbally and through dance in the fashion of The Village People’s “YMCA.” By the first repetition of the chorus, the entire theater was singing and dancing along in perfect unison. The same level of total enchantment occurred during Roan’s performance of “Kaleidoscope,” her next single set to be released on March 31st. For the entirety of the song, not a single noise could be heard beyond the sound of Chappell’s sirenic vocals and delicate piano accompaniment. It was as if the entire city of Los Angeles held its breath for three minutes, refusing to disrupt such a fragile, beautiful confession of love. 

And with the tumult of applause at the close of “Kaleidoscope,” Roan began the final act of her performance - the final act of her Naked in North America Tour.  The final act commenced with Roan’s most recent hit, “Casual.” The staging reflected the undersea-mermaid aesthetic used in the newly released music video for the track. Audiences were once again transfixed by Roan’s flowing vocals, swaying back and forth like the ocean’s waves to the beat of the song. Hypnotic swaying transitioned into intention-filled dancing and scream-singing as Roan transitioned from the slower-paced, heartfelt “Casual” into sexy, rage-filled, fan-favorite “My Kink Is Karma.” By the time Roan reached the first chorus, I could barely hear her for every single member of the audience had started screaming back the lyrics as if their lives depended in it. It was like everyone had just gone through the same breakup and was fueled by the same rage and hurt that only comes after one is scorned by a lover. 

If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought that Roan had left every ounce of her soul on that stage at that point. When she walked off at the end of “My Kink is Karma” it, for any other artist, would have been the most fulfilling, empowering end. But Roan is different. Roan had more to say and the audience could feel it. For the short minutes between the end of “My Kink is Karma” and the beginning of the encore performance, the energy did not dip for even a second. The entire audience was practically buzzing with anticipation. 

When Roan and her band strutted back onstage, the pandemonium that ensued at the opening of the show practically tripled. The final two songs in her set were Chappel Roan’s original LA Folktales: her 2020 single “California” and her break-through hit “Pink Pony Club.”  Each song tells the tale of Roan’s move to LA in pursuit of her lofty (but clearly well within her power) dreams of becoming a pop star. During “Pink Pony Club” you could see the unmistakable sparkle in her eye of an artist who knows they’ve made it. It was the perfect way to end the night. It was the perfect way to end the sold-out North American tour. And the perfect way to end this very first of many chapters of what will seemingly be a long and remarkable career.