I’ve spent the last few days trying to shake the image of Lily Allen standing on the stage of The Auditorium Theatre this past Saturday. It wasn't the Lily of 2006, the one in the prom dress and trainers, nor was it the glossy pop star of the Sheezus era. This was something entirely different—vulnerable, sober, and intensely theatrical.
The show, billed as Lily Allen Performs West End Girl, is less of a traditional concert and more of a piece of performance art. It is a bold move, especially in a city like Chicago where we usually like our Saturday nights loud and predictable.
The Setlist: A Tale of Two Acts
The night was split into a polarizing two-act structure that has been the talk of every record shop in the city since she landed.
Act I: The String Trio "Karaoke" The show began not with Lily, but with a string trio. For about 35 minutes, they played orchestral arrangements of her greatest hits—"Smile," "LDN," "The Fear." Lily didn’t sing. Instead, she encouraged a massive, theater-wide karaoke session. It was a bizarre, communal moment. Hearing two thousand people shout-sing "Fuck You" over the top of elegant violins felt like a very Lily Allen way to handle her past. Some people in the balcony were visibly confused, but most of us leaned into the absurdity of it.
Act II: West End Girl in Sequence When Lily finally took the stage for the second act, the vibe shifted instantly. She played her new album, West End Girl, from start to finish. The staging was fascinating—a shifting set that moved between a London hotel room and a New York bachelor pad, a physical manifestation of the dissolution of her marriage to David Harbour.
The highlights for me were:
"Tennis": A tense, coiling track that felt even tighter in the live setting.
"Madeline": One of the most emotionally raw moments of the night.
"4chan Stan": A biting, quintessential Lily track that reminded everyone she hasn't lost her edge.
"Fruityloop": The show ended on this track, a quiet, contained sigh that left the room in a heavy sort of silence.
The Performance
There’s been some chatter online about her being "stiff" or "awkward" on this tour, but I didn't see it that way. What I saw was a human being re-entering a world she thought she’d left behind. It was her first sober tour, and you could feel the weight of that. There were moments of genuine, gleeful giggles—I caught one during "Ruminating"—that felt like she was surprised by how well the songs were landing.
She wasn't hiding behind big choreography or anthem-sized hype. She was just there, stripping down—both literally, as part of the costume changes on stage, and figuratively through the lyrics.
Why It Worked (And Why It Didn't for Some)
The Auditorium was the perfect venue for this. Its formal, seated grandeur grounded the messy, informal diatribes of the lyrics. It felt like watching a play where the protagonist occasionally breaks into song to explain why her life is falling apart.
If you went in expecting a greatest hits tour, you were probably disappointed by the first forty minutes. But if you went in to see an artist reclaim her narrative, it was one of the most compelling shows Chicago has seen in years. Lily Allen isn't just back; she’s evolved into something much more interesting than a pop star. She’s a storyteller now.
Setlist Notes:
Act I: String Trio medleys of "Smile," "LDN," "22," "The Fear," "Fuck You."
Act II: West End Girl (Full album in order).