RØRY– BIRMINGHAM O2 INSTITUTE, 03 MARCH 2025

BY SHARI BLACK VELVET

There are concerts that you go to for fun, and there are concerts that you go to for, not just fun, but to really feel something… something deeper, something within, something from the heart. A RØRY show is one of the latter. 
And, no matter your age, whether you are young or old, male, female, or gender neutral, you are all welcome. Everyone is welcome at a RØRY show, and everyone fits in. When at a RØRY concert, everyone is exactly where they are meant to be.

After a couple of impressive sets by female-fronted bands Lake Malice and As December Falls, two bands we’ll be hearing lots more from soon, there’s a huge cheer as RØRY arrives on stage. Opening song, ‘In The Bible’, includes the lyric ‘Everything you lost will be restored’, which came to RØRY, AKA Rox Pink, in a dream. And everything that she lost WAS restored – her music career, her personal life, friendships and sobriety. That, alone, is inspiring. 

In the opening song, RØRY’s silky vocals softly wash over you. They harden a little for ‘if pain could talk, what would it say?’ where RØRY, authentically, opens up about the pain she’s faced in her life. “Who has been here since the start of the story?” she asks, after the final line, ‘RØRY, this is the start of your story’.

The audience prove that they have been along for the ride since the beginning, as they sing 2021’s ‘UNCOMPLICATED’ at the top of their lungs. RØRY definitely knows how to write perfect pop-rock anthems that strike a chord with the listener.  

Before ‘Help Your Friends Get Sober’, RØRY tells the crowd, “There is one reason why I’m stood on this stage today, and that is because I got sober, six and a half years ago.” She sees a fan in the front row with a ‘One Month Sober’ sign, asks her name and asks the audience to give her a massive cheer. The song goes out to anyone who has got sober or anyone that didn’t make it. RØRY, as she stands on stage today, is a fantastic role model. She has gone through so much and come out the other side. 

As December Falls frontwoman Bethany Curtis joins RØRY on stage during ‘My Funeral Song’. “Are we having… fun?” RØRY asks at the end of the dancey tune. There’s a cheer from the audience. “Something about that doesn’t feel right… You are, after all, at a RØRY concert. I’m glad you’ve had fun up until this point. I’d like to let you know that the fun is now over!” She talks about losing her mom at the age of 22 to cancer. It’s sad to hear that she never got to see her perform live. She asks the audience, if they feel comfortable, to raise a hand if they have lost a family member or friend. She talks about how it makes you feel so lonely, but so many are going through a similar thing. It’s a truly heartfelt moment, which leads into the lulling ‘Jesus & John Lennon’. 

Songs such as ‘ALTERNATIVE’ are stunning. RØRY’s husband Rich gets to greet the crowd before the heartbreaking, piano-fueled ‘FAMILY TREE’. RØRY surprises everyone when she goes up into the balcony to sing ‘One Drink Away’ and ‘the apology i’ll never receive’, acoustically, with her guitarist, Charlie Manning. She makes sure everyone can see by asking some of the crowd to move further back so those underneath the balcony that she’s on can move over and then watch. At the end of ‘One Drink Away’, she tells everyone who is trying to give up drinking to stick with it. It’s refreshing to hear a singer talk openly at a show about being sober and clean, hopefully inspiring more people to pick alcohol-free options.   

The set, and singer, continues to impress with songs such as ‘MORALITY $UICIDE’, ‘hold on’, ‘WOLVES’ and ‘The Atheist’, songs which are both sensitive and empathic, as well as powerful and poignant. But it’s the encore, which begins with a light-hearted, recorded audio skit, which features RØRY talking to her husband, which brings real jubilation. ‘SORRY I’M LATE’, with its almost ‘Mr. Brightside’-style verse-hook and vitality, sees the whole crowd sing along for all their worth, as the vibrancy of the song leaves you on a high. And then, ‘BLOSSOM’ seals the deal, with its powerful conviction. As the song ends with the final lyric, ‘Bury me and watch me bloom’, we can categorically state that RØRY has most definitely bloomed. Her time is now.