When Gen-Z’s dazzling starlet Olivia Rodrigo revealed that she would be going on tour for her sophomore album, GUTS, I ran to her website to sign up for a ticket presale.

The album had been released less than a month before Rodrigo’s Instagram post announcing her GUTS World Tour.

I attended Rodrigo’s SOUR Tour back in 2022 in Las Vegas. Because it was her first tour, Rodrigo had headlined in smaller, more intimate venues. I knew this was going to be a completely different ballgame. A world tour; she was going to be playing almost 100 shows in arenas I had only dreamed of seeing concerts in! Madison Square Garden, The O2 and Kia Forum; I could barely contain my excitement.

It was difficult enough nabbing a chance at presale. Out of seven different Ticketmaster accounts between my friends and I, mine was the only one to receive a coveted code. When the time came to buy tickets, I was stressed and knew securing these tickets would be no easy feat.

Half an hour later, after many failed attempts and a call from my credit card company, I was able to snag four seated floor tickets for night two at the Kia Forum.

Ecstatic, my friends and I immediately put the date on our calendars. Aug. 14, 2024, the very back end of her U.S. tour leg. Now all we had to do was wait almost a year.

Over the course of the following months, our anticipation only grew as we watched TikToks of fans attending the GUTS tour all over the world. We carefully curated our outfits, studied up on her songs and planned the rest of our long-awaited three-day trip to the City of Angels.

Rodrigo sold out a total of six nights in her hometown, Los Angeles (LA), this time around. Originally, she only planned to host two shows in the city but tacked on an additional four shows due to the extremely high demand for tickets.

The week of Rodrigo’s residency in LA featured a multitude of events for fans, even those without tickets, to enjoy. Complex LA in Fairfield held a GUTS pop-up, featuring exclusive merch and exhibits curated by Rodrigo herself. Crumbl Cookies sold a GUTS themed cookie at all of their LA locations that week. LiviesHQ, Rodrigo’s official fan account, even put together a GUTS LA scavenger hunt with exclusive prizes such as GUTS t-shirts and stickers. However, the coolest event by far in my opinion took place right outside the concert venue. The GUTS tour bus experience, which followed Rodrigo around the U.S. during her first and third tour legs.

Since we arrived in LA the day before the concert, we decided to try our luck at going to the GUTS bus that first day. We successfully got in line, jumping up and down with excitement. I looked around, seeing that the line for the pit had formed long ago . People were willing to wait crazy hours to get a good view of Rodrigo.

We inched forward and our first stop was the merchandise booth. My friend and I managed to get ourselves a couple of tour t-shirts and concert lightsticks. We used an American Express card to get a free Amex exclusive GUTS bus poster and GUTS tour themed trading cards. I paid a total of $106 for my items, which is pretty standard for merch on a tour like this.

The next stop was the Customization Station by Dr. Martens, an event booth stocked with rhinestones, posca pens, safety pins and more. People were customizing their merch, their own concert outfits and of course their Doc Martens. We got our hands on a couple pairs of free ribbon laces before moving on.

There was a photo booth, but it was separate and had a very long line, so we passed on that and made our way to the final stop before the GUTS bus. The tables in front of us were littered with postcards on which we could write to fellow fans across the country. In the center stood a mailbox with lyrics from Rodrigo’s “hope ur ok” across the side.

“Address the letters to the holes in my butterfly wings,” it read, one of my favorite lyrics of hers and the inspiration for my first tattoo. I smiled, snapping a photo before we finally reached the front of the line.

After an hour and a half of waiting, we made it into the GUTS bus experience. There was no time limit on how long you could be on the bus, but the staff encouraged each group to get their content as quickly as possible to keep the line moving. I was ecstatic upon entry.

The bus wasn’t really an interactive experience so much as a place for themed photo opportunities and a museum of tour memorabilia. A big purple moon resembled the one Rodrigo sat on above the crowd during her show. All of her iconic Sour Tour outfits were encased in glass. A vanity mirror with kiss marks and “bad idea right?” scribbled across it in red lipstick, just like in her music video. The walls were covered from top to bottom with photos and posters of Rodrigo. I definitely could’ve hung out there all day.

We ended the day by picking up a couple of Rodrigo’s Crumbl cookies on the way to our hotel and settled in for the night.

Trying to fall asleep was practically intolerable, and I sprung out of bed the next morning a restless mess. It didn’t even feel real– today was the day! I spent the entire morning in an elated, impatient daze. After frantically getting ready, we left the hotel around 6 p.m. and began the mile-long walk to the Kia Forum. I’m definitely glad we chose to walk instead of drive since the traffic was crazy, even for LA traffic.

Security was quick and organized when we arrived at 6:30 p.m. In less than 15 minutes, we made it through to Kia Forum’s renowned Terrace, the area outside the arena that opened about an hour and a half before the doors. Kia Forum is notoriously known for its iconic Terrace pillars, which feature song lyrics and photos of the artist performing that night. We lined up to take pictures in front of the lyrics from our favorite songs, going from wall to wall as we walked through the crowd.

After taking a plethora of Instagram-worthy photos, my friends and I devised a plan as we made it through the doors. Find our seats. Find food. Find a bathroom.

I really don’t think it hit me that this concert I had been intently counting down to for months was finally happening until we walked down what felt like millions of stairs onto the floor of the Forum. I looked around in complete awe, the arena looking so enormous from where I was standing. So different from the venue I saw Rodrigo in two years prior.

The employees scanning tickets helped direct us towards our seats. We walked closer and closer to the stage. I didn’t realize until then how close our seats actually were. My friends and I were absolutely giddy as we found our row, towards the front of the right-hand-sided middle section. Even though I was the one who bought the tickets, I was still so dumbfounded by our place on the floor.

Our tickets were in section Q, row five, seats five through eight. In my opinion, the seat was completely and genuinely worth the $586.75 I spent. This is the most I have and hopefully ever will spend on a concert ticket, but it was justifiable to me because Rodrigo is one of my all-time favorites and she puts on one hell of a show.

Now that we knew where we were going, we took to finding some food. This was going to be a long night of jumping, screaming and dancing, and I was hoping to avoid doing so on an empty stomach. Kia Forum had a ton of concessions upon entry, but the lines were insane. On the floor level, there was a snack bar adjacent to a bathroom, which worked out perfectly. We headed towards the bathroom right as Rodrigo’s opener for the night, 90s alt-rock band The Breeders, began their set. The sounds of “Iris” and “Cannonball” echoed through the bathroom stalls as my anticipation skyrocketed.

The Forum is completely contactless, and it was my first time at a venue like that. When we walked over to the concessions, there was a gate resembling a subway turnstile where you scanned your phone to enter. From there, you simply grabbed your food and walked out through the other side. It felt so strange! I grabbed a hot dog and a box of Sour Patch Kids. About three seconds after I stepped through the gate, a charge of $15.40 popped up onto my phone. The price was to be expected for an arena like the Forum.

We headed back to our seats to polish off our dogs and watch the end of The Breeders’ set. I don’t really listen to them but I really enjoyed their performance filled with encaptivating visuals and great sound. As The Breeders closed out their show and left the stage, the lights came back on. We watched as more people began to filter into the arena.

Rodrigo’s pre-show consists of four candles that take over the big screen, spelling out the word GUTS in big, melting letters. Once the candles fizzle out, Rodrigo takes the stage.

As we settled into our seats, the candles were growing shorter and shorter. Every drip of wax had my heart rate increasing. The arena went pitch black, and the crowd roared. After what felt like the longest moment of my life, the screen lit up and a mysterious video of Rodrigo running down an empty corridor flickered on and off. Her hand reached up onto the screen, lit in a purple hue, bearing four rings across her fingers spelling out the word GUTS.

And finally, Rodrigo rose up onto the stage at 8:35 p.m. The energy of the crowd was pure insanity. She shimmered in a sparkling two-piece miniskirt set and fishnet tights. Her hair in long and loose curls, she sported her usual Doc Martens and an electrifying red-lipped grin.

“How are we doing tonight Los Angeles? Welcome to the GUTS World Tour,” Rodrigo exclaimed. “Tonight’s gonna be really special, I can feel it.”

She opens the show with “bad idea right?” an upbeat and playful song, followed by the equally vivacious “ballad of a homeschooled girl.” As she ran around the stage, spinning and dancing, I felt like I was going into literal shock with the amount of adrenaline coursing through my veins.

Rodrigo’s show quickly turned into an emotional rollercoaster as she switched gears, playing some of her saddest ballads. I cried through most of “vampire” and “traitor,” cut by Rodrigo’s sorrowful vocals and her dancers’ gut-wrenching choreography. When she sat down at the piano and played “drivers license,” I was a nostalgic wreck.

Rodrigo continued on with “teenage dream,” a poignant track reflecting Rodrigo’s fears of growing up. There wasn’t a dry eye between my friends and I, who are all close in age to Rodrigo, making the song very relatable to us.

Kaitlyn Poulan is one of my four friends who attended the GUTS tour alongside me. She confessed that this particular performance really tugged at her heartstrings because of the visuals Rodrigo backed the emotional song with: a video archive of her childhood home videos and flashbacks of the singer’s upbringings.

“I felt very emotional when she sang ‘teenage dream’ because of the video of her growing up, and dancing and singing,” Poulan said. “It’s just really cool to see where she was at two or three years old and now at 21, and what a big hit she’s become.”

Rodrigo reappeared in a new ensemble, trading in the silver sparkles for a black sequined two piece. She carried on with “pretty isn’t pretty,” “love is embarrassing,” and “making the bed.” She truly is a class act performer, and left me in awe of her insane visuals and choreography.

The next part of Rodrigo’s show was by far my favorite. Stars dropped down from the ceiling, suspended in the air reminiscent of the night sky. Through the heads of the crowd, I watched as the singer climbed and sat atop a hydraulic crescent moon, which was set to float above the crowd through the arena.

I didn’t realize just how close she was going to be. I watched in a state of shock as the first few notes of “logical” began to play, and Rodrigo rose up into the crowd on the bright purple moon. She waved at the crowd with excitement, and I could barely breathe.

Rodrigo played a total of 23 songs, with a few notable tracks being “so american,” “the grudge” and “all-american b*tch.”

When she came out for “favorite crime” I was in shambles. Rodrigo took a seat next to guitarist Daisy Spencer on the edge of the stage, performing an acoustic set.

Alex Ingram, a close friend who also saw Rodrigo in LA at her closing show of the GUTS World Tour’s third leg, found himself in a similar state.

“I got really emotional when she was singing with Daisy, just sitting down. And that’s hard to do, with the fanbase that Olivia Rodrigo has,” Ingram said. “At Olivia Rodrigo, no one is silent. They’re all just screaming the lyrics. But just a singer with their guitar, it’s the most intimate it can be.”

Rodrigo continued on with “obsessed” where she appeared in a new outfit, popping out in a red singlet and star studded tights. To quote Rodrigo herself: I screamed, I cried, I did the whole thing. The concert had gone by in a complete and absolute blur, and the last hour and 45 minutes had been some of the best of my life.

As Rodrigo resurfaced for her encore, I was overwhelmed with an incomparable range of emotional intensity. She wore a sparkly pair of micro shorts and a white tank sporting the phrase “might just be in LA LA LA.” This was a play on words for the city of Los Angeles, and lyrics from the chorus of “so american.”

As she played “get him back!,” her final song of the night, the crowd cheered as star-shaped confetti rained down. I reached out to grab the colorful stars, Rodrigo’s handwriting scribbled across them.

“thanks 4 coming to the show! xo, Liv,” read the tiny piece of paper I held in my shaky hand.

Overall, this entire experience was one I will never, ever forget, and the best part was that I got to go with my best friends in the entire world. It’s insanely difficult to put into words how therapeutic and indispensable live music can be for people like us, who hold the artistry of savants like Rodrigo in such high regard.

However, Ingram, who I initially connected with through our shared appreciation of music such as this, puts it simply and better than I ever could’ve.

“It was a Good. F*cking. Time.”