English singer-songwriter Erin LeCount first gained fans when she competed in the first season of the British The Voice Kids back in 2017. When she was just a kid, she already started writing her own music, and she finally released her debut single ‘Killing Time’ in 2022. Completely self-taught, LeCount writes, records and produces all of her music by herself in her garden shed. On the 8th of September, LeCount brought the shed to the stage of Amsterdam’s Tolhuistuin as part of her ‘Digital & Divine Tour’.
Doors to the venue opened at 19:30, while LeCount would only take to the stage at 20:30. In the hour in between, the eager fans listened and danced along to the pre-show playlist, curated by LeCount together with the fans as she asked them for recommendations on Twitter. Chappell Roan’s ‘HOT TO GO!’ especially led to a lot of excitement, with everyone singing and/or doing the choreography. At exactly half past eight, the introduction to LeCount’s set began playing over the speakers. “First of all, how are you feeling?” it started off, continuing with a breathing exercise and some eerie affirmations, and ended with “I am digital, I am divine”, referencing the title of LeCount’s latest EP. LeCount took to the stage completely alone, all of her instruments already set up for her and angel wings hanging near the back of the stage. LeCount formed a one-woman band, and she did this effortlessly. She opened with her EP’s title track. During the pre-chorus, as the lyrics went “I wait for it”, LeCount added a slight pause after “wait” – the audience by now was well familiar with the concept of the mute challenge, and most knew what to do (or rather, not to do).
Unlike other artists, LeCount did not perform with just one, but two microphones in hand. An interesting phenomenon not often seen. She continued with ‘Marble Arch’ and ‘Mind the Gap’, an older song that she had actually taken off the setlist for this tour, which made so many fans upset that she decided to play it after all. Another older song played was the almost-three-years-old ‘Killing Time’, celebrating its birthday this month. LeCount wrote this song about reaching a dead end with someone and feeling like hitting a wall in the relationship. Fifth and sixth on the setlist were songs from her latest EP, released back in April, called ‘Sweet Fruit’ and ‘Godspeed’. LeCount dedicated the latter to the girl her ex dated after her, basically wishing her luck with him. The girl and her ex ended up breaking up as well, and the girl features on this song in the backing vocals. LeCount wrote this reminiscing about moments when she “kept quiet when [I] shouldn’t have”. There was so much anger LeCount felt that she kept extending the song by adding more and more verses.
LeCount followed with some unreleased songs, the first being ‘808 HYMN’ which was to be released two days after this show. LeCount wrote this song after walking home alone at night. “Now I’m grown, I’ve come to know, every girl’s out here on her own,” some of the lyrics go, speaking about how the moon and the sky are not watching over you, won’t protect you, as a girl walking in the dark. This song was especially hardhitting considering the events that have taken place in the Netherlands recently, which made for an emotional moment. The feelings continued straight into ‘Machine Ghost’. LeCount stated how she wrote this about “feeling separate from your body, disassociation, being in a room full of people and feeling completely vacant”. It became more and more noticeable how many fans of hers relate to her emotions as lots of tears were shed across the venue.
Afterwards, LeCount held a little speech about how much she wanted to “thank everyone in this room” and how grateful she felt to be able to go on her first tour across Europe. She felt so much love, which helped her get through the previous song especially – on her setlist, it even said “try not to cry” next to its title. From the middle of the crowd, a fan shouted “you deserve it”, which gained a huge smile from LeCount. She continued with her mash-up of the Frank Ocean song ‘White Ferrari’ and Phoebe Bridgers’ ‘I Know the End’, which went viral on TikTok and led to an upsurge in her popularity. LeCount then played ‘Heaven’ from her Soft Skin, Restless Bones EP; the closest thing she’s ever written to a love song while “struggling to accept who I was and who I loved”. Fans had written their names on a rainbow pride flag and gave this to the singer to hold up during this queer anthem. Finally, LeCount of course played her most well-known song at the moment, ‘Silver Spoon’, during which several fans held up actual silver spoons. At the end of the set, LeCount received many gifts, including flowers, a teddy bear and handwritten letters. While the show was only about an hour long, it was perfect and truly divine.
