renforshort Live at The Moroccan Lounge

Over the pandemic, I watched a lot of my friends who are musicians struggle to understand what place they were supposed to take, now that the world had briefly gone mute. The ability for sound to carry communication became so vital and personal - for both the artist and the audience. In moments like those, you turn to music that gives your inner voice the chance to take presence in the room. renforshort is no stranger to that. In fact, their entire debut album is a sort of ode to that inner teenager, begging for a chance to speak. 

The Moroccan Lounge was exactly how the Moroccan always is: inviting, warm, buzzing with anticipation. While we all waited in line, ren came out with boxes of pizza to hand out to fans. There was a palpable sort of love coming from her, the one that makes your stomach feel full. At the end of her first set of songs, she announces how good it feels to be back doing her own version of a hometown show. She’s lived in LA for two years now, she exclaims. The people in the room cheer, just as excited to be there with her as she is. 

renforshort, fresh home from her tour with YungBlud in Europe, reminds her audience that she is still the same honest songwriter that she was when she wrote her 2020 viral hit, fuck, i luv my friends. her stage presence is nostalgic, and I mean that in the sense that it felt like I had already known her for years, just from the way she sings to her fans. The blessing of performing at a venue like the Moroccan is that you quite literally, can see everything. ren made sure of this, as they continually switch between playing guitar and jumping across the stage. By the second song, she had tied her hair up into a tight ponytail towards the middle of her head. Strands of hair continued to fall out, almost rendering the ponytail a tedious accessory. ren feels like my friend, as it felt so normal to see her so present. What I appreciate about artists like renforshort, is that they don’t talk to their audience like an audience, they talk to us like we are friends. It makes sense, when you peek into renforshort’s discography. So many of their songs are both deep laments and odes to self-discovery. Her songwriting is journalistic in the personal way. She has an entire song dedicated solely to share a smoke with Julian Casablancas. I’m reading her diary, because she’s already read mine. 

renforshort has the crowd tuned in. With electric performances of tracks like “i miss myself”, or “moshpit” - renforshort has the crowd plugged into her story. As a perfect companion cover to the dear amelia setlist, around halfway through, ren performs an unplugged cover for “Where Is My Mind” by The Pixies. You wonder how intentional these artistic choices are, and you wonder what cohesive narrative ren is trying to tell through her show. What I learned most about renforshort during her set, was that she is something beyond her virality. Her music is honest in the way that can’t be digested in short sound bytes but should experienced as whole expression of who ren is right now, and who she might see herself becoming in the future.