“I thought Orlando deserved the same show everyone else had,” she added. The anguished pleas took the place of jokes to lighten the tone amid “all those songs about heartbreak”. Throughout a 30-minute guitar-driven set, which she called the most emotional and challenging of her career, the endearing Weiss, sporting a rainbow armband, asked the audience to “live your life from a place of love”. The other side is: how do I go out there and play a show when something that horrible has just happened?” “So, as a performer, I want to make sure I’m keeping myself safe and my fans safe. “As we were driving down, Orlando declared a state of emergency,” Weiss said. Pat-downs were given and bags barred from entry, perhaps signalling the dawning of a new reality in America. Security was tripled at the tiny, enclosed venue in the deserted downtown area.
“It was absolutely so important to me to stand up there and be who I am, and I wanted to show my fans it’s OK to be who they are, too.”įollowing a collaborative decision to proceed with the show amid the chaos of Sunday morning, focus turned to ensuring safety.
I’m not going to hide in the shadows because of some lunatic,” she told the Guardian following the final east coast show supporting Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties. “This was an LGBT-related crime and I am gay. For a gay woman and vocal advocate for equality, it was a chance to stand with the LGBT family. In at least one case, the news was not good.įor Georgia-born Weiss, 29, amid the heartbreak, the experience was cathartic, an important display of community, but also a statement. Some anxiously glanced at smartphone screens, seeking information on whether loved ones “made it out alive”. The following night, many at the intimate Back Booth venue just two miles away stood in sombre silence, listening intently to Weiss and fellow artists. When Weiss took the stage, “the city beautiful” was less than 24 hours removed from the atrocity at the popular LGBT nightspot, which is now the scene of the deadliest mass shooting in US history. Thinking about the people at the Pulse nightclub who didn’t have that luxury was tough, but it gave the lyric even more power.” “It’s a reminder that as bad as it gets, you get to wake up and see the sun every day. “I wrote that song for myself as much as for other people,” said Weiss on Monday.