PinkPantheress Show a Trip to 2000s Nostalgia

The talented musical artist PinkPantheress brought back the early 2000s at her Boston performance on May 12 at MGM Music Hall in the Fenway.

Powered by her amazing energy, PinkPantheress showcased her unique blend of R&B, U.K. garage sounds, drum and bass, and electronic music that alchemizes 2000s nostalgia into a powerful personal style. The performance was lighthearted, featuring whimsical callbacks to her music videos and outfit changes rotating through her iconic Y2K plaid miniskirt and tank top collection. (Many audience members also came in following this dress code.) Despite performing to a large audience, PinkPantheress brought her signature sense of authenticity, creating connection between her and the audience.

IN THE YEAR 2000: PinkPantheress in Boston earlier this spring. Courtesy photo by Corwin Wickersham.

The world-building through the set design and screen projections reminded us that even though she’s a superstar, she is also just a U.K. girl making beats in her bedroom, waiting in line for the club with friends, and having fun. Instead of a mystique of exceptionalism that many performers prefer to amp up on stage, PinkPantheress invites us into her playful, welcoming, down-to-earth world.

PinkPantheress opened with her hit “Stateside,” which created a fun, explosive energy that filled the music hall as the audience sang along. U.S. figure skating champion and Olympic gold medalist Alysa Liu choreographed a routine to the PinkPantheress and Zara Larsson remix of “Stateside” earlier this year at the winter Olympics exhibition gala, which has also boosted the song as viral hit. Alysa Liu’s choice of “Stateside” was fitting, given that both her and PinkPantheress are powerful young women in their 20s who are navigating public journeys of maintaining authenticity to their inner artistic voices while being catapulted into fame. Despite the pressures of success, both know how to have fun while exploring their craft, which PinkPantheress demonstrated in her concert.

Impressively, PinkPantheress and her team started strong and kept up the playful, hyped energy throughout the performance through well-executed blending between her hit songs and lesser known-ones. The background visuals through the projections were nostalgia wrapped in more nostalgia, in that they were callbacks to her music videos (such as of “Girl Like Me”), which are also nostalgic takes on 2000s aesthetics and culture. PinkPantheress is known for pioneering a “new nostalgic” sound, which blends U.K. garage, drum and bass, and jungle with samples from the 1990s and 2000s. In our times full of seemingly perpetual crisis, spending time with PinkPantheress’ music offers welcome respite through time travel to a lighter, more playful, and more girly time.