Melanie Martinez brought her HADES tour to Los Angeles’ Kia Forum, turning the arena into a strange,
theatrical world that felt distinctly her own. The audience was already immersed before the show began, with fans filling the venue in the gothic, fairytale-inspired looks that have become closely associated with Martinez’s aesthetic. Once the performance started, that same atmosphere carried onto the stage.
The show moved through a wide range of sounds and moods, with Martinez using choreography, vocals, costumes, lighting and large-scale production to give each section of the set its own identity. Rather than relying on one continuous visual concept, the production kept changing around her, moving between darker and more playful moments while maintaining the surreal tone that runs throughout her music.
Martinez was rarely left standing in one place. Dancers surrounded her throughout the set, sometimes
matching her movements and other times creating more chaotic sequences around her. The choreography became particularly noticeable during the darker songs, where the movement was sharper and more exaggerated.
During “AVOIDANT,” the entire arena became part of the visual experience as thousands of
fans raised their phone lights while Martinez and the dancers continued performing through the darkness.
The music itself carried plenty of weight in the arena. Electronic percussion, heavy bass and programmed elements gave songs such as “THE PLAGUE” an especially physical presence. Red lighting and increasingly aggressive choreography pushed the performance into one of the night’s more intense moments. The live
arrangements stayed close enough to the recorded versions to remain familiar, but the volume and scale of the Forum gave them a much larger impact.
Martinez’s vocal delivery worked particularly well during the quieter sections of the set. Her voice remained at the center of the songs even when the production around her became dense, with processed vocals and backing elements adding to the atmosphere without completely taking over. There was a noticeable contrast between those controlled vocal moments and the heavier songs, which gave the set some needed
variation.
The visual production became increasingly strange as the night continued. Projected imagery, elaborate costumes and oversized stage elements appeared throughout the performance, with everything from anatomical imagery to gothic environments appearing on the screens. Some of the visuals were
intentionally bizarre, while others were more directly connected to the songs. The dancers also contributed
to the theatrical quality of the show, often performing movements that felt closer to physical theater than
conventional concert choreography.
“The Vatican” brought another major shift. Martinez appeared in a costume incorporating religious imagery
while red lasers and fog filled the stage. The electronic beat drove the performance forward, and the
audience responded by turning the arena into a massive dance floor. It was one of the clearest examples of how Martinez could take a song with a darker subject and turn it into one of the most energetic moments of the evening.
The production continued changing during the second half of the show. Martinez disappeared beneath the
stage before returning in a completely different setting, with practical effects and fire incorporated into the performance. These moments gave the concert the scale expected from an arena production without
completely pulling attention away from the music.
“CHATROOM” took the show in a more digital direction, using a vintage computer aesthetic and on-screen
imagery. The performance played with themes of online identity while the dancers and stage production
continued moving around Martinez. It was another example of the concert using its visuals to give the songs an identity beyond what is heard on the recordings.
Toward the end of the set, the production became increasingly theatrical. A living-room-style setting appeared onstage, creating one of the more intimate-looking environments of the night before the show eventually built toward its final sequence. Martinez and the dancers continued performing as the stage transformed around them, eventually leading into a final burst of confetti across the Forum.
For all of its size, the production never completely separated itself from the music. The costumes,
choreography, lighting, screens and set pieces were all built around the same visual world Martinez has
established throughout her career. That consistency is what kept the spectacle from feeling completely
disconnected from the songs.
HADES is ultimately the kind of arena show that asks its audience to do more than simply watch an artist perform. Martinez creates a world around the music and gives each song its own physical and visual treatment.
At the Kia Forum, that approach translated well to the scale of the venue. The result was an
evening that was strange, theatrical and deliberately excessive at times, but unmistakably Melanie Martinez.
Setlist:
GARBAGE
IS THIS A CULT?
POSSESSION
WHITE BOY WITH A GUN
DISNEY PRINCESS
GRUDGES
MONOPOLY MAN
AVOIDANT
MONOLITH
WEIGHT WATCHERS
THE PLAGUE
BATSHIT INTELLIGENCE
GUTTER
UNCANNY VALLEY
THE VATICAN
HELL’S FRONT PORCH
CHATROOM
THE LAST TWO PEOPLE ON EARTH
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