Live Review: Tate McRae @ Red Hill Auditorium, Perth

Tate McRae is one of those lightning-in-a-bottle phenomenons, rising up the ranks into stardom with the likes of Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, and the pop girl ilk of the TikTok/Brat zeitgeist. Combining the Y2K style of Britney Spears (with the dance moves to boot) and the youthful sadness of contemporary pop, Tate creates catchy earworms. She’s got the hits, but can she bring them to life?

Accompanying McRae on her Think Later Australia dates is Seattle native charlieonnafriday, providing a modern hip-hop sound not unlike that of pre-country Post Malone or The Kid LAROI. Enough is an 808 drum built around guitar verses and a love-scorned tale, whereas I’m Not Crazy samples Matchbox Twenty’s Unwell and turns it into a saccharine pop song with a driving chorus. It’s a good time and it’s enough to get you tantalised before Tate.

In the only acceptable fashion of entering a stage, the ex-Dance-Moms diva-turned-pop star strides out onto the stage after a lengthy monologue about overthinking. Receiving a warm welcome from thousands of phones armed, ready, and set to record. 

The stage beams to life as four men in white tank tops dance around a scantily clad Tate McRae in yellow to the title track of the sophomore album and the tour namesake, Think Later. “Perth, what’s up? My name is Tate McRae. Nice to meet you guys; she beams before following this up with a rock rendition of Hurt My Feelings and Uh Oh, which sees her balance precariously with two female dancers on a metal beam as she breathes through the vocals.

It’s a high-impact show with a focus on the choreography, of which McRae is an athlete. Choosing at times to let the backing track carry the song as she twirls and shakes around the stage to a wonderous light show. 

What’s Your Problem, Stay Done and Feel Like Shit are a string of introspective and gripping songs. Where she chooses to strip down the stage to a spotlight to prove that she can, in fact, sing if she wants, and rather well at that. They sound magnificent, the latter especially pulls right at the heartstrings as a crowd of 5,000 sob to the skyline of Perth City. 

During the ballad, Messier pauses mid-song to get security to help a girl in need before things pick right back to the extreme as hair is tossed around to the sound of camera flashes. Cut My Hair is an outrageously seductive R&B number about doing it better than the other girl.

After a brief hiatus, the star returns to a stage that is now decorated like a boxing ring. Wrapping her body around the ropes, she bounces from Rubberband straight to Exes, jettisoning into the song with enough force to blow you right off the steps of Red Hill.

It’s infectious, hard-hitting 2000s R&B with a twist, and she injects it straight into your veins—spitting a bridge so quick you have to pause and question what it is she just said whilst she’s already diving straight into a full-fledged dance routine without stopping for breath. This is the legacy of Tate McRae: hard-hitting dark pop bangers that give her space to put her footwork into play.

You Broke Me First is ripped straight out of a diary entry about being wronged in love and the one that put the lovelorn songstress on the map. It hits even harder here, and you can tell how much her voice has improved over the years. 

She slicks from bouncy R&B into guitar-heavy rock influences as the seductive Guilty Conscious and We’re Not Alike become Run For The Hills and She’s All I Wanna Be with their punchy Olivia Rodrigo-esque electric guitar riffs. Even the EDM-tinged 10:35 has a rock influence, bringing new life to the track. 

A brief hiatus sees an over-eager crowd chanting Hey Baby (uhh ahh) in order to get the superstar back out to play radio-friendly pop bangers It’s Ok I’m Ok, and the 2024 summer smash Greedy, applying pressure with knife precision dance moves for each one as a final send-off. She gives a kiss goodbye, knowing full well she just fell into the hearts of everyone on the hill.

There’s a true star power that emanates from the stage where everything feels both intense and effortless, as if the 21-year-old has spent a lifetime honing her craft.

The crowd hangs on to every single word, parroting the songs back at tenfold the decibels. The production, from the band to the staging and even to the dancers themselves, all felt authentic but somehow also like a perfectly refined machine.

Yet the energetic performer herself ties the whole thing together with a wry grin and a tongue-in-cheek wink that makes you wish she stayed for more.