Chloe Moriondo is On Something at Paradise Rock Club – Lea Zaharoni
Watch me bleed out on your screen…
On November 13th, Chloe Moriondo stopped in Boston while on her SUCKERPUNCH tour of the US and Europe. As an old fan from her mid-2010s YouTube channel, I was surprised to see how much she’s changed — from a wide-eyed, dorky teen making ukulele covers in her iconic yellow bedroom to a highly saturated hyperpop pixie, effortlessly captivating a packed standing room audience. She skipped, jerked, and pranced about the stage, showcasing her latest artistic foray: the purposefully excessive Suckerpunch, a record whose production is virtually unrecognizable compared to the dreamy, guitar-based Blood Bunny, released in 2021 by Fueled by Ramen. Then, I probably would’ve compared her to Cavetown — now, I’d use Ashnikko.
Her dramatic change in appearance and style could be just growing up — on YouTube, she was fourteen and fifteen, tucking in too-large t-shirts and sitting cross-legged on the floor. Now, at twenty, she’s hyperfeminine and giddy, frequently showing off her smiley piercing with cheekbone-shattering grins. Something that I never expected from Moriondo is her new sugary, y2k dominatrix character, who threatens her enemies with violence on more than half her new songs. Importantly, her demeanor had nothing in common with her larger-than-life diva writing persona — she showered the crowd with love in between every song, making the classic, historically male venue feel new and welcoming to her mostly queer Gen Z fanbase. Her band was made up of two other youths, one on keyboards and one on drums, whose wide smiles lasted throughout the whole set. When introducing a rather angry song, she asked a crowd member to name someone they hated. The answer, of course: Mom. Moriondo laughed heartily, turning to the crowd and commanding, “Everybody say, ‘F-ck you, Mom!’” Her fanbase is still those same dorky teens, and she refuses to run from that.
Throughout her ~hourlong set, she played most of Suckerpunch, with only two crowd-pleasers from Blood Bunny: “Bodybag” and “I Want to Be With You” during an encore. Suckerpunch has received acclaim as a completely new direction for Moriondo, with its flashy, electronic production and hedonistic lyrics. Staples of hyperpop, like mechanical sounds and voices pitched up and down appear throughout, as well as refined writing abilities. On “Plastic Purse,” the target is the familiar careless ex-dude.
I’m a sucker for the little things
I’m a statue, you’re a figurine
You can’t even reach my limousine
But I still really, really, really wanna
She sings of her fascination with celebritydom on multiple songs, for example, the opener, “Celebrity”.
Know your life was getting
Boring without me
TMZ
Watch me bleed out on your screen
She also performed a cover of Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi”, which, along with some references to fallen pop queen Britney Spears, recontextualizes her relationship with fame as perhaps more satirical than sincere. Later in “Celebrity” she acknowledges the past she’s come so far from.
Chloe, why are you like this?
How did you get so big, so famous?
How’d you break away from the heinous plainness?
Way you’re movin’, baby’s gonna end up a-list
While I do wonder about her almost unnatural energy level, her graphic depictions of drugs and sex, and her frequent threats of violence, I know that she’s not a teen filming covers on her laptop anymore. She’s embraced a new character, and she definitely knows how to give an amazing show.
Tags: Lea Zaharoni