A buzz of chatter hummed throughout the venue, coming from a crowd that was adorned with bedazzled costumes and posters. Suspense filled the air as the fans prepared for Sabrina Carpenter to step under the spotlight on the Moody Center Stage. Carpenter went from her first Austin Show on the Emails I Can’t Send Tour in 2023 where she performed at a 2,000-person venue to her second Austin show ever on the Short n’ Sweet Tour, where she had a crowd of over 15,000 people. 

On her rise to stardom, Carpenter curated a show filled with talented openers to help her fill the stage for her fifth headlining tour. She recruited Griff to open the show for her through October, along with Amaarae who opened her first string of shows, and Declan Mckenna who will be closing the US leg of the tour. 

The Austin opener, Griff, released her debut album Vertigo and has opened for some of the world’s biggest artists like Ed Sheeran, Coldplay, Dua Lipa, and Taylor Swift prior to coming on the Short n’ Sweet tour. She had a versatile array of songs going from her lead single Vertigo and ending with Tears For Fun. With a mix of pop hits and ballads, Griff engaged with the audience displaying not only her masterful vocals but also her playful personality. Part of her set included a segment that mimicked a live studio session, where she took beats from her clapping to use as instrumentals for her songs. All in all, the British pop star put together quite the production for every single audience member, and even sang an unreleased song called last night’s mascara, pumping up the crowd for the rest of the show. 

The crew began to prepare the stage for Carpenter to come on leaving fans with an intermission to get ready for the main act. To start the show, a pre-recorded video popped up on the main screen of Carpenter in the bath getting ready to go on stage. Utilizing an old television visual aesthetic,  Carpenter used a series of video graphics to say “starring…” as she ran across the stage in a rush to get ready for the audience. After she didn’t come out the first time the announcer stated again: “ummm…starring?” and Carpenter came through the center stage wrapped in a towel with a bright spotlight on her ready to start the night. The nature of Carpenter’s introduction to the show played into a vintage feminine vibe, which not only set the tone for the rest of the night but established a motif she plans to uphold throughout the duration of this tour.

To begin Act One, Carpenter unwrapped a sparkling towel to reveal a pink bedazzled strapless bodysuit, which she later paired with a babydoll pink chiffon overlay during Taste. This act of the show featured her flirty and fun songwriting in  songs like Taste, Good Graces, and Slim Pickins. She additionally included two more heart-wrenching love songs from her previous album (entitled emails i can’t send) called Tornado Warnings and decode. To further elevate the tracklist, Carpenter included choreographed dance numbers to go along with each song that also highlighted different parts of the set design. Finally, she ended the act with fan-favorite track Bed Chem, bringing out a hand held camera whose footage displayed live on the screens adjacent to the stage and ending the segment.

Between acts, Carpenter played another pre-recorded video which introduced her live band in a late night show style. She took on a more elegant dark style at this point in the show, featuring her black lace body suit and boa to open with Feather, one of her popular songs from the deluxe version of her last album. In this rendition she set the song to a jazzy instrumental, adding a more elevated touch to this version of the song. The bulk of the songs in this act were from emails i can’t send, such as Fast Times, Read your Mind, opposite, and because i liked a boy, with the exception of Sharpest Tool, and Coincidence. All these songs took a more mature tone to them, in performance and lyrics. The stories she portrayed through songwriting depicted more adult struggles and relationships, contrary to her earlier albums which had more youthful energy.

Additionally, she took the visual reenactments of these songs more seriously which demonstrated emotional complexity and painted familiar scenes that resonated with fans. A noteworthy example of this was her choice to sing opposite, which focuses on the superficiality that physical appearances play into relationships, into a mirror rather to the audience like she had during previous songs. 

For her surprise cover song, Carpenter spun a glass bottle to land on the number four, prompting her to sing 9 to 5 by Dolly Parton, while wearing a fan-made cowboy hat. She finished the act off with her unofficial nonsense intro to perform Nonsense one of her biggest pop hits which sparked interest internationally back in 2023. 

Soon it was the last act, where she started with Dumb & Poetic, one of the most tragic ballads on her most recent album, dressed in a glittery black top and skirt with boots to match. However, she immediately switched it up by mock-arresting a fan for being too pretty, interacting with her audience, and handing them a personal souvenir for the show. She moved into singing her songs Juno, Please Please Please, and Don’t Smile, finishing off this section of the show with nothing but pure energy. 

Her backup dancers and band pretended to fall asleep after finishing the final act, but Carpenter came back to wake them up with her number one radio hit Espresso, which served as the encore to the show. The whole arena sang every lyric along with her in anticipation and sheer excitement, even though the show was coming to an end.

Throughout the night, Carpenter stunned crowds with her powerful vocals and consistent energy throughout each song. The set was nothing short of captivating, almost emulating a Barbie Dream House with all the moving pieces and intricate architecture. She had the costuming to match this high attention to detail, as she debuted different colors and accessories in her outfit each night on the tour. In her interactions with the crowd, she showed nothing but absolute appreciation for the platform fans have given her in her gradual rise to stardom. Every album so far has led Carpenter to this level of success and adoration from people all around the world. Her performance for the Short n’ Sweet tour in the heart of Texas was everything fans both new and old were hoping for.