Erin LeCount @ The Ritz, Manchester - 12th May 2026
- Huw Williams
- May 14
- 3 min read
3 Acts, a pair of rabbit ears, one woman. Erin LeCount's 'Pareidolia' tour kicked off in Manchester in a fantastical haze of drama and emotion.
Words and Photos - Huw Williams
Before a note had even been played, the atmosphere inside the room already felt strangely communal. A young crowd had queued all day, vibrating with anticipation, and singing at the top of their lungs through the pre-show playlist, none louder than during 'Dog Days Are Over'. Voices crashed together before turning to excited screams as the lights dropped. That sense of emotional abandon will become the defining thread of the evening.
LeCount emerges through shadow and smoke wearing a pair of rabbit ears, holding onto them for barely half of opener I Believe before shedding them almost immediately, the symbolism giving way to the performer herself. What emerges is a character that could be lifted from a half-remembered fairytale: ragged layers of pale fabric drifting around her, ethereal and ghostlike beneath projections of swirling vortexes, spinning clocks, moons and galloping rabbits.
The graphics lean into surrealism and Alice In Wonderland, but are not a gimmick. Instead, it becomes an extension of the emotional world her songs inhabit, expressing the essence of Pareidolia - seeing things that aren’t necessarily there; your mind playing tricks.
The material largely draws from her EPs, with the entirety of the new release airing out across the evening. Early on, introducing a brand new track - Cinema. LeCount smiles: “I’m excited for you to be the first people to hear this.” Except at least half the audience already knows every word. That becomes the recurring theme of the night. Not just the size of the reaction, but the intensity of it. Teenagers and twenty-somethings scream lyrics back with total conviction, every chorus sounding like a spiritual congregation.
Act I gradually builds from delicate vulnerability into something darker and more muscular. By the time AMERICAN DREAM arrives, throbbing synths pulse through the venue with unexpected force, LeCount pushing the track into something almost industrial at points, bringing genuine weight to the close of the opening stanza.
LeCount returns for Act II with a costume change that subtly mirrors the first: another pale pastel dress, equally spectral, equally theatrical. I Am Digital, I Am Divine swells, towering synths and carefully choreographed lighting giving the room a grand, almost cinematic drama. The arrangements are ambitious, and LeCount retreats downstage to the synths and loops through this act, adding depth to the output so the songs feel vast, almost physical.
Mind The Gap, written when she was just seventeen, gains fresh urgency through looped percussion and pounding electronic textures, while an unexpected cover of Queen’s Somebody to Love earns one of the loudest singalongs of the night. Perhaps it begins as something for the dads who brought their daughters, but the crowd know every line anyway, turning the classic into another shared emotional highlight.
The emotional centre of the set arrives late in the second act. Heaven eases the room into a quieter mood before ALICE lands with devastating honesty. LeCount explains the song took a long time to write, and you can hear that within it, exposed nerves wrapped in glossy electronics. As the final notes ring out she steps down toward the barrier, reaching for the crowd while hands stretch back toward her. The ending of Act II feels heavy, intimate and affecting.
By the time Act III opens with Godspeed, the emotional reset arrives through pulsing electronic beats that evoke Running Up That Hill before developing into LeCount’s own ethereal world. The momentum keeps building through 808 HYMN, synths surging euphorically as the crowd loses itself in the moment.
Closing with Silver Spoon, LeCount delivers the kind of finale she would have dreamed about for opening night. Euphoric, dramatic and entirely deserved. Around her, moon and stars, rabbits flicker across the projections and clocks distort against the backdrop while the audience sings every last word back at the stage.
For an opening night, Pareidolia is already fully formed. The theatrics are striking, but they only work because the emotional core underneath them is so honest and authentic. What Erin LeCount is building is more than a live show; it’s a community that goes beyond the music and connects her fans on a much deeper level.
