Review & setlist: AURORA summons MGM Music Hall into her cult of humanity
“I’m really proud of you for being here and for being alive,” the Nordic folk and electro-dark pop singer-songwriter told her audience.

boston.com | December 5, 2024

“You’re part of the cult now,” an audience member whispered to a friend as eerie music crept through MGM Music Hall.

A glowing light illuminated a larger-than-life figure — a prophet or perhaps a cult leader — summoning her flock. Aurora Aksnes, known professionally as AURORA, appeared below the gleaming projection, singing softly then screaming into the fog and shadows.

The Nordic folk and electro-dark pop singer-songwriter performed at MGM Fenway on Dec. 4. The concert was a stop on her What Happened to the Earth Tour — Aksnes’ music and politics go hand in hand.

With captivating experimental tracks, she calls for peace, tolerance and a rekindling of faith in the goodness of people. Her latest album, “What Happened to the Heart?,” cries out to humanity to change.

Drums pushed “Churchyard” in a marching beat with guitar and synths following. Aksnes stretched her arm out towards the audience under strobe lights as if casting a spell.

“Hello,” Aksnes said, giggling. She quickly transitioned from her all-powerful persona to reveal a bashful woman wearing a tiered tulle skirt and a kind smile. “The show is more eclectic than you might think, so just brace yourself.”

Aksnes bathed in meditative reflection through the aching lullaby “Through the Eyes of a Child.” As a soft orange glow spread across the stage, she explored unlearning hate and fear and seeing people as we did when we were young.

“When a human strokes your skin / That is when you let them in / Let them in before they go / I would rather feel alive with a childlike soul,” she sang. Heavenly harmonies were manipulated to sound like siren songs reverberating through a cavern.

“All is Soft Inside” felt like an acid trip with angelic vocals and trippy imagery of a moon with blinking human eyes. The track soared to dancing, then soft contemplation, then rock. Purple and green lights floated through the sky like the aurora borealis — mysterious and breathtaking like Aksnes’ music.

The bizarreness continued with projections of Aksnes tip-toeing around in a sun headpiece during “Some Type of Skin.” She jumped around the stage and belted in epic bursts about the beautiful vastness of her connection with the world.

“It feels like being on a hot sunny holiday from … my dark depressing work,” she joked about the track before returning to the shadows.

Aksnes explained that her next song, “The Conflict of The Mind,” is about the heaviness of not knowing how to express the pain you feel with those close to you. She told the audience to imagine themselves eating with their families with all of that agony swirling around inside. “Yes, we are going to hell,” she quipped.

Although the track traversed difficult memories, it also gave space for the blessing of someone letting another person be there for them. Aksnes performed with just her guitar. It was delightfully simple and soft. Fans swayed and held each other as she delivered dreamy vocal runs.

She remained in that peaceful realm for “Exist For Love,” and squealed when a couple in the front of the pit got engaged. Asknes abruptly shifted to menacing chanting and red shadowy lighting for “The Dark Dresses Lightly.” Two backup singers stood behind her like a witch coven, drawing the audience into their ritual.

Aksnes dedicated “Runaway” to indigenous people removed from their land. “No, take me home, take me home where I belong / I can’t take it any more,” she demanded. In the same vein, she sang “The Seed” for Palestine, Ukraine, and other regions dealing with war, pain, and death.

Techno punctuated the queer-coded “Cure For Me” as Aksnes danced around with a Pride flag. “I’m really proud of you for being here and for being alive,” Aksnes told the audience.

She closed out the show with her most vulnerable performance of the night: “Invisible Wounds.” The song began with just her on the keys – the way her music journey started at age 6 in her family’s attic. Her band joined her in honoring the cathartic peace of choosing to do the work to heal emotional wounds.

Setlist for AURORA at MGM Music Hall at Fenway, Dec. 4, 2024
  • Churchyard
  • Soulless Creatures
  • Through the Eyes of a Child
  • The River
  • A Soul With No King
  • All is Soft Inside
  • Some Type Of Skin
  • The Conflict Of The Mind
  • Exist For Love
  • The Dark Dresses Lightly
  • The Blade
  • Starvation
  • Runaway
  • The Seed
  • Running With the Wolves
  • Giving In to the Love
ENCORE:
  • Invisible Wounds
  • Cure for Me
  • Queendom