She is known for being involved in every creative decision, being fully in control of the world she is creating as an artist. Being independent is not easy for an artist, especially when it comes to touring. However, there is nothing that can stop hannah bahng from making her dreams come true.
On april 16th, hannah bahng played an almost sold out Melkweg Max for her ‘THE MISUNDERSTOOD WORLD TOUR’. Right before doors, outside the venue, the queue seemed to be never ending. As she sold several different versions of VIP packages, the front row fans had been seated at the barrier for several hours. The anticipation only grew in the hour that passed from the opening of the doors till the start of the show.
When finally, the overhead lights went off, the intro sounded through the speakers and the spots directed at the drummer and guitarist started flashing, the fans went wild. Then hannah appeared on stage and started the night with ‘What Never Lived’. After playing ‘tonight’s the night i die to a frank ocean song’, hannah went to stand behind the keys to play ‘Vertigo’, followed by ‘Abysmal’. The crowd seems to be ecstatic with every move hannah made, as she danced a little flirty to ‘OLeander’.Â
Last year, hannah told us, she performed a, then unreleased, song live. As she went into production with this song, nothing she added to it felt the same as the live version had felt. That is why she kept the final version of this song exactly like it was back then, with just her singing voice and a guitar. This was one of her more vulnerable songs, which the quietness of just the sound of the guitar really emphasized. The song she was talking about was ‘RIBS’.
hannah asked to get the house lights on so she could see everyone in the crowd. She looked through all the faces in a search for her ‘perfect blue’. There were a lot of hands rising up, from people wanting to volunteer to be hannahs ‘perfect blue’. hannah laughed at that as she pointed out that no one in this room even knew what she meant with her ‘perfect blue’.
She found someone in the back of the crowd whom she found perfect to be her ‘perfect blue’. Because the person she was trying to appoint was all the way in the back of the crowd, there was some confusion as to whom she actually meant to be her ‘perfect blue’. That is why in the end, two fans got the chance to come on stage to be her ‘perfect blue’. hannah told them to hold hands and come up to the stage. Both girls had just bought some merch, which hannah used as an opportunity to advertise her merch.
It seemed as if hannah wanted to create her own viral fan moment, like Sally with Role Model and the Lush Life dance with Zara Larsson. However, it was unclear what the fans were supposed to be doing on stage, which made the moment feel rather awkward. hannah announced she wanted to do a fashion show with the fans, which resulted in the three of them standing on the middle platform on the stage and dancing to some music. When the fans were dismissed, hannah continued the show by addressing the parents in attendance. Since a lot of her fans were quite young, there were a lot of parents accompanying them. She said she herself felt old as she could not keep up with all of the trends. She barely got the 67 trend and now the fans are saying something with ‘scuba’. She did not know what they meant. Her next song was one the parents might also enjoy as she said they would probably think their kids were all stinky and smelly. It was a cover of ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ by Nirvana.
After performing her own version of this all too well known song, she performed a song nobody knew yet, as it was unreleased. The song was called ‘Malibu’. During this song, hannah took her moment in the spotlight to shake some ass. hannah told us that she aimed to make these live performances of her songs feel different from when you would just be listening to them via streaming platforms. That is why she tried to make the next songs more rock. One of these songs is a song she wrote in the last weeks and was yet unreleased. It was called ‘over and over’. Followed by more rock versions of ‘IM ME AGAIN’ and ‘POMEGRENATE’.
She announced that the following song would be the last song of the night, to some disappointment from the fans. hannah herself also seemed to be postponing the song which would mean the end of the show, as she kept talking. She received a flag from the Netherlands with her face on it from the fans and placed it on the front of the stage. She asked if the overhead lighting could be turned on again, so she could take a photo with all the fans. The fans seemed to love this and they all put their hands in the air for the photo. After taking the photo, she then started her supposed final song of the night: ‘MISUNDERSTOOD’.Â
It would be strange for her to end her set without having played ‘perfect blues’. So of course, that was not happening, as she played the song for the encore. She was met with loud cheering from the crowd. Even though it had been quite a short show, the set only took one hour and a half, the fans left the room happy and satisfied. Even the parents seemed to have enjoyed this night out supervising their kids.
