Live Report: AURORA imbues Trinity College with otherworldly playfulness

A slight breeze is cooling down the skin of Trinity Series concert attendees on this particularly warm Sunday evening. As Norwegian singer-songwriter AURORA whispers the first few notes of ‘Churchyard’, the wind and its capacity to highlight mysticism take on a whole new sense.

It is not long before the track jumps into the electronic production of its second half, not losing a drop of its eeriness, but suddenly inspiring feet to sway and arms to rise in the air with excitement, incredibly boisterous and yet breathless, powerful and transporting.

The first tune marks a catalyst, a thesis statement for the rest of the evening, and perhaps AURORA’s entire discography: a meeting between otherworldly, amazingly intense soundscapes and relentlessly dance-inducing numbers, more often than not all wrapped into the same track.

Welcoming her crowd with her first wonderfully long and chaotic rant of the evening, AURORA and her charming demeanor begin by expressing her joy to be back in Ireland for the first time in many years: “There is something about this place that feels right,” she expresses under warm applause, “like home.”

“Sadness and happiness,” the singer continues after a stunningly rock-flavoured performance of ‘All Is Soft Inside’, “they’re meant to dance together, and that is what we are going to do tonight!”

Few tracks from AURORA’s discography are actual, fully happy songs, yet much of this night’s set inspires absolute boisterous dancing and uncontrollable, pouring-out-of-you joy. This is marvellously exemplified by ‘Queendom’, which she introduces as “my favorite song to do, because it’s so fun,” and also “finally, one for the gays!” - particularly appropriate on the day following Dublin Pride.

As AURORA jumps, runs and dances around the stage wrapped up in a Queer flag, it appears clearly that the euphoric feeling of the evening is not only driven by the melodies, but perhaps even more by the performer herself. With her unending charm and deliciously straight-forward humour, the singer effortlessly pulls out a laugh of every attendee each time she addresses the crowd, unapologetically herself and contagiously buzzing to be performing, even almost ten years into her career.

It is perhaps thanks to her capacity not to take herself seriously that AURORA’s more ethereal and emotional numbers hit so hard. After another long, uncontrolled and beautifully entertaining speech, the musician acknowledges that she “didn’t come here for yapping - I’m going to sing some songs, and shake that sweet ass” – before immediately stopping herself, having just realised that the next few songs were meant to be more relaxed and stripped back numbers.

Indeed, with the wonderfully romantic and soft ‘Exist For Love’, performed with only an accompanying acoustic guitar, the singer quiets down the dancing, allowing the spellbinding quality of her songwriting to take the forefront.

Most notable, though, might be the following track ‘Through The Eyes of a Child’, an early career highlight which has recently made a resurgence in the singer’s setlist after being featured in the Netflix hit series Adolescence. Performed slightly slow-tempoed for the occasion, the almost fully acapella song is tinted with an almost religious, ritualistic feel which makes the entire grounds of Trinity College go absolutely quiet, transported by the magical sounds.

Almost all of the emotional heavy-lifting is done by the absolute perfection of AURORA’s vocal performance, as perfectly measured on stripped back tracks like ‘The River’ as on the belted, shiver-inducing bridges of ‘A Soul With No King’ and ‘Some Type of Skin’ .

With a vocal range capable of swinging the listener towards any intense emotions she chooses, the singer also explores a fair amount of rage and militancy throughout her discography. In deeply powerful and hard-hitting performances, she offers the foot-stomping ‘The Seed’, where the crowd transforms into a mystical choir while AURORA shouts out the simple, yet effective, lyric: “you cannot eat money.”

On her newest album What Happened to the Heart?, perhaps her most mature and experimental work to date, the Norwegian songsmith explores this intensity through stirring lyricism and powerful instrumental arrangements. On the set’s second to last track, ‘Starvation’, the bridge is filled with heavy, techno-flavoured bass lines that transform the Trinity College grounds into a distinctive, mystical sort of rave.

Not before making her audience jump into a few more summer dances, with the beautifully joyous ‘Giving Into The Love’ or ‘Cure For Me’, AURORA closes her encore sat behind a grand piano, alone at the centre of the stage.

Suddenly quiet and emotional, the songwriter dedicates her final track to her friend and Cork electronic artist Eoin French, aka Talos, who passed away last year. “During his last moment on earth,” AURORA offers, “he did what he loved: playing music.”

With this incredibly emotional performance of ‘Invisible Wounds’, the Norwegian musician delivers one last magical and swaying moment to her Dublin audience, ending on an incredibly well-suited and mystical crowd-wide choir for each of the final notes.