Slayyyter explodes hyperpop all over hometown of St. Louis

Sometimes concert photography starts with a photo pass waiting at the box office and everything going exactly according to plan. Other times you stand around outside the venue, wondering if anyone knows who you are or why you’re there.

July 29th was leaning pretty heavily toward the second option. With my credentials temporarily stuck somewhere in the mysterious machinery of the music industry, I walked across the street and got some bibimbap; there are worse ways to deal with a box office snafu. Eventually, everything got sorted out and I made it into The Pageant for the third and final hometown show from St. Louis’ own hyperpop hero, Slayyyter.

And “hometown show” might be underselling it a little…

Slayyyter had already sold out The Pageant Sunday and Monday before coming back Wednesday and selling it out again. Three sold-out shows in four nights is less of a tour stop and more of a temporary occupation of the Delmar Loop. Apparently, being the WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA makes you extremely popular in Missouri.

Opening the show was SadBoi, who had the fairly easy assignment of warming up a crowd that didn’t need much warming up. People were packed against the barricade early and there was a noticeable level of chaos in the room before Slayyyter even appeared. SadBoi didn’t waste it. Her set was energetic, the crowd was into it, and — by the time she finished — The Pageant was basically ready to explode.

Which it did when Slayyyter came out.

For anyone unfamiliar, Slayyyter (born Catherine Grace Garner) grew up in the St. Louis area before building an audience online and, eventually, turning that into a legitimate pop career. Her music pulls from hyperpop, Y2K pop, electronic music, club music — basically every wonderfully trashy thing about early 2000s celebrity culture. And I’m saying “trashy” as a compliment here.

Coming back home and selling out The Pageant once would be pretty cool. Doing it three times in the same week is something else. Her fans certainly seemed aware of that this night, too. They were loud from the beginning and only got louder as the night went on. Screaming, dancing, singing along, with phones in the air… I’ve photographed a lot of shows at The Pageant, but there’s a pretty obvious difference between people who enjoy an artist and people who are deeply, deeply invested in them. Slayyyter has the second kind.

The show itself looked every bit like a Slayyyter show should.

Big popstar energy, elaborate styling, and three different outfit changes over the course of the night. The visual side of what she does is obviously a huge part of the appeal and everything from her clothes to the stage production felt carefully put together without making the show feel stiff. Slayyyter herself seemed completely comfortable in the middle of all of it. Maybe that’s not surprising. This was night three, after all.

I think the denomination “hometown hyperpop hero” is fair to use at this point. If not, I’m using it anyway. In all, it wasn’t a bad night that considering it started with me standing outside, wondering whether I was getting into the show at all!

Photography by Sean Rider

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