“I’m unraveled.” It is one repeated line from “the cure”, and it gave a tour its name. On Friday 25 September at PeoplesBank Arena in Hartford, Connecticut, Olivia Rodrigo opened The Unraveled Tour with a 23-song set built around her third album, you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love, and played 12 of its 13 songs on the first night.
The only album track missing was “what’s wrong with me”, her song with Robert Smith of the Cure. Everything else made the cut, next to the biggest songs from SOUR and GUTS. Wolf Alice opened the night, a second Hartford show followed on Saturday, and the run now stretches to 86 dates across North America, the UK and Europe.
A Setlist Split Into Seasons
The show runs in chapters named after the seasons, according to the opening-night setlist published by Just Jared. Spring opens it, with “drop dead” performed in a field of flowers, then “u + me = <3”, “so american” and “good 4 u”. Summer brings “my way”, “Serena Joy”, “bad idea right?” and “ballad of a homeschooled girl”, with “vampire” and “purple” at dusk.
Autumn leans hardest on the new record: “stupid song”, “maggots for brains”, “traitor”, “begged” and “cigarette smoke”. Winter runs “honeybee”, “favorite crime”, “drivers license”, “less” and “the cure”. The encore swings back to spring for “deja vu” and “all-american bitch”, and the night closes on “expectations”.
The structure does real work. It turns a greatest-hits show into a single story told across a year, and it lets the new songs sit next to the old ones on their own terms rather than arriving as a block of unfamiliar material halfway through the night.
Twelve of Thirteen, and the One Left Out
The album count is the headline. The official tracklist on Rodrigo’s store runs to 13 songs: “drop dead”, “stupid song”, “honeybee”, “maggots for brains”, “u + me = <3”, “my way”, “purple”, “the cure”, “begged”, “what’s wrong with me” with Robert Smith, “less”, “expectations” and “cigarette smoke”. Twelve of them were in the opening set.
That is an unusual level of commitment to a record released in June. The album came out on 12 June through Geffen Records, according to Live Nation’s tour announcement, and the set treats it as the spine of the show. The new songs open the night, carry the autumn chapter almost alone and close the encore.
The older hits are placed rather than piled up. “good 4 u” arrives in the first four songs, “vampire” lands in the summer run, “drivers license” sits late in the winter chapter just before “less” and “the cure”, and “deja vu” opens the encore. Every era gets a turn, but the new album holds the most important slots: the first song, the last song and the moment before the encore.
Where the Older Songs and the Outtake Fit
The other eleven songs split evenly between the first two records, with one outtake in between. From SOUR, the 2021 debut, came “good 4 u”, “traitor”, “favorite crime”, “drivers license” and “deja vu”. From GUTS and its deluxe edition came “so american”, “bad idea right?”, “ballad of a homeschooled girl”, “vampire” and “all-american bitch”. That is five from each, arranged around the twelve new songs.
The eleventh is “Serena Joy”. According to Stereogum, it was recorded during the sessions for the new album, takes its name from a character in The Handmaid’s Tale, and first appeared as a limited-edition CD single sold only at Analog Record Shop in Orange County before it reached streaming services. It sits in the summer chapter straight after “my way”, which gives the new era a thirteenth song on the night even though it is not on the record.
What is missing says as much as what made the cut. Several GUTS songs, including “get him back!”, “making the bed” and “teenage dream”, were absent on the first night, as were SOUR’s “brutal” and “happier”. With three albums now behind her, a 23-song arena set has become an exercise in subtraction, and the opening night made clear which records get the shortlist and which get the spotlight.
That choice also changes the pacing. Five SOUR songs spread across four chapters act as anchors the whole room knows, so the unfamiliar material never runs for long without a chorus the crowd can carry. It is a careful build, and it helps a set this heavy on new music still feel like a celebration of everything she has released.
The Cure, the Line and the Dress
“the cure” is the centre of the night. According to iHeartRadio’s opening-night report, it was the album’s second single, its lyric “I’m unraveled” inspired the tour name, and Rodrigo performed it in a dress designed to visibly come apart during the song.
Its place in the running order makes the point plainly. It closes the winter chapter, so the song that named the tour is the last thing the room hears before the encore. For a tour named after coming undone, the costume change and the chorus land at the same moment.
The hook of the song carries that weight well. “I’m unraveled” is short enough to be sung back by an arena on first hearing, and repeated enough that it works as a tour name as easily as a chorus.
Wolf Alice and the Openers to Come
Wolf Alice opened in Hartford and stay on the bill from 25 September to 30 October, according to Rock Sound. Devon Again takes over from 7 November to 20 December. The Last Dinner Party join for dates from 12 to 16 January and 11 to 16 February 2027, Grace Ives from 19 March to 9 April, and Die Spitz close the run from 23 April to 2 May.
It is a support list that leans towards bands, with Wolf Alice, The Last Dinner Party and Die Spitz all bringing guitars to a pop headline show. For fans of the older, louder songs in Rodrigo’s catalogue, the first month of the tour offers a strong double bill.
How Big the Run Has Become
The tour was announced in the spring with 65 shows across North America, Europe and the UK, NBC Connecticut reported at the time, with the opening weekend in Hartford on 25 and 26 September. It now stands at 86 dates, per iHeartRadio.
The original plan already included four nights each at Los Angeles’ Intuit Dome, Brooklyn’s Barclays Center and London’s The O2, and two nights in cities including Washington, Chicago, Atlanta, Nashville, Vancouver, Oakland, Las Vegas, Stockholm, Paris and Milan, according to Live Nation. Two details from the announcement matter to fans still looking for a way in: Rodrigo offered a limited number of $20 Silver Star tickets, and a portion of her proceeds from ticket sales goes to her Fund 4 Good.
What to Watch Next
Three things will shape the next month. The first is whether the set holds this shape across the multi-night stands, where repeat visitors will be watching for changes. The second is how long the new songs keep their prime slots once the tour settles; opening and closing on the new record is a statement, and it will be tested night after night. The third is the handover from Wolf Alice to Devon Again in November, which changes the tone of the evening before the headline set even starts.
The cheap tickets are worth watching too. PopHits.News covered a similar move this month when Charli XCX opened her arena run with $20 Angel tickets. Rodrigo’s Silver Star tier follows the same idea, keeping some seats within reach on an arena tour.
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