This was one of the BEST shows I’ve ever been to. Hayden is incredible live.
The Date
Wednesday, August 20, 2025 show (LA night 1) at the Shrine Auditorium.
The Venue: The Shrine Auditorium
https://www.shrineauditorium.com
Ok first of all this venue is so cool! It was built in 1925 so it’s literally 100 years old. It has a kind of faux Arabic vibe to it, I originally thought because it was built and designed in the style of old Hollywood’s idea of the Middle East. Not entirely wrong – I looked it up on my phone waiting for the show to start and turns out this was built by a group called the Shriners, formerly known as the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, a Masonic group. Who established this order? Two very non-Arabic men who liked the aesthetic and decided to draw from it to establish their group which stood for fun and fraternal fellowship. They also supported children’s medical facilities. So that was a fun fact…
Anyway it’s opulent and gorgeous inside. Fully carpeted, stained glass windows, moody lighting, and a bunch of strange market-stall looking displays on the second floor with mannequins in different costumes and merchandise displays of assorted wares. Totally unexpected. Like who decided to put that there? Why is it there? The mannequins look like that because…?
Inside the actual auditorium… gorgeous! LOOK at this ceiling! Look at the stage!
According to the Shrine website it has “the single largest proscenium style stage with freestanding balcony in North America.” I sat on the balcony and thought it was pretty cool.
I’m not a sound person so I can’t speak to anything technically but I do think the sound was fantastic. Hayden’s voice and all instrumentation came through perfectly. 9Million sounded great too.
Opening Act: 9Million
Hayden’s shouted out 9Million on Instagram before so I knew who they were, but I only really knew their song The Trick. Love that song and now that I’ve seen them live I feel like I’ll enjoy their album even more if I revisit it again. They did great and really did get the crowd hyped for the show to start. Also shout out to Matthias Tomasi for being such a big part of WTIALY, the album and the show (because I’m pretty sure he comes back out to play the whole rest of the Ethel Cain show after opening with 9Million – and if it wasn’t him then his doppelgänger did great).
Stage design
Sooo moody. The stage looks like the physical recreation of the visualizers for this album. Same feeling. There were tree branches covered with Spanish moss suspended from the ceiling, a central area with a cross that felt like a pulpit flanked by ivy covered dividers, and a row of reeds with fairy lights woven through.
The lights were sick. Lots of strobe lights, which I wasn’t expecting, but lent a fitting frenetic energy to some of the songs.
The fog machine was possibly the hardest working member of the show lol. So, so much fog. But it really made the visuals ethereal and otherwordly and set the vibe perfectly. Also, all the pictures that people took from the show look amazing because you see Hayden silhouetted against a smoke background and it’s just perfect.
I wish my pictures captured how awesome the stage actually looked in person. Plus being in the Shrine the whole thing was a vibe.
Willoughby’s Theme
Set the tone, mother!
Janie
I always expect live vocals to be less polished than the studio version but no – Hayden’s voice was perfect. It sounds just like the studio album or better. For the whole show. Also all the musicians on stage really hold it down!
Fuck Me Eyes
First big moment in the set list for us listeners and it’s sooo satisfying. VOCALS GO OFF.
Nettles
I was so excited to hear this song live. It was incredible. The girl who played the banjo was so good. I adore the banjo in this song. The vocals were gorgeous. Anyway, experiencing Nettles live was amazing and I’m so glad I got to see this live (because who knows if she’ll perform this on future tours!)
Willoughby’s Interlude
Set the tone some more, mother!
Dust Bowl
Let it also be known that I LOVE this song. I used to listen to the leaked demo and pre-WTIALY performances but once we got the studio version I was hooked. It goes so hard. The audience was definitely feeling it too. Can confirm the Vietnam part with the drop is everyone’s favorite part.
Vacillator
Enter Perverts. Gorgeous vocals. Again, she sounds just as good live as in the studio versions, if not better.
Onanist
I’d been listening to all the songs I knew were on the setlist leading up the show and this was one that I’d been gaining new appreciation for the more I listened to it. And hearing it live gave me even more appreciation for it. The part where she goes “but there before the grace of God go IIII” melts me.
Misuse Oh
I was fully expecting to get A Knock At The Door based on previous cities’ setlists and was SO surprised when they started playing this one! I haven’t listened to this song or the Carpet Bed EP a lot so couldn’t place it right away but eventually got there. I think this is the first time she sang it on this tour, too. This song is beautiful. It was amazing live. The guitar is so sad and wistful, the kind of shit I lived off of in my iPod days. (Full song here.)
Radio Towers
Love this track. Lights went crazy. The anticipation was high for Tempest. No clips for this one, sorry…
Tempest
From this point on the show was basically an transcendent experience. Like, we all transported to another plane in the theater. Only a few lights were used for this performance so a lot of it was in a mostly dark theater, making it feel like we were completely surrounded by Hayden’s voice and embedded in the story of the storm and Willoughby’s angst and pain in his relationship with Ethel. Yeah, this song went crazy.
Waco, Texas (with a bit of A House in Nebraska)
Ok, confession: I recorded this entire performance on my phone. Annoying, I know. But I knew I was going to want to come back to it later. Fortunately an Ethel Cain show isn’t like a Beyoncé show where I’m dancing a lot so I was able to sit still and capture the whole thing. And I don’t regret it.
Hearing Waco live was transcendent. One of my favorite parts is when she goes into “cause I’d rather die” and it was just so beautiful live, she kept trailing her vocals which she doesn’t do in the studio recording and it was amazing.
Anyway, this was gorgeous on it’s own as we knew it would be, then when the song would have ended she kept going and starts singing A House In Nebraska 😭 only a small bit of it but it was just the icing on top.
Thoroughfare (encore)
Hayden comes back on stage in cowboy boots and tells us “the next song is a little country” aaaand we went wild. I did NOT think we were going to get Thoroughfare at our show – I thought we’d only get Crush and American Teenager, which would have been more than enough – but they started playing and we all went crazy. I loved her playing the harmonica and of course her freestyle vocals at the end always get me. (Full song here 😘)
Crush
I will never stop loving this song. The Shrine is mostly a seated venue and people were mostly seated the whole show, but people got up for Crush. I am soooo happy I saw this live! This is forever a fan favorite. (Full song here!)
American Teenager
Then we ALL rose for the national anthem 😂 ending the show on a high.
Final Thoughts
Sometimes I think I’m over live music, then I go to a show that blows me away and I realize I’ll never get over it. I love it. I loved this show so, so, soooo much. I would have even gone again the next night if I had money to spend like that.
Whenever the next Ethel Cain tour happens, I’ll be there. If you can go, GO. This was one of the best shows I’ve ever been to. What an artist. I’m so glad I got to experience her art live.
Check out my Ethel Cain playlist for all the other clips I got from the show.
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