Indie rock took center stage Saturday night at the Teragram Ballroom in downtown Los Angeles in the form of Nashville-based artist Annie DiRusso’s command of the 625-person standing venue. The intimate crowd gathered near the front, making the energy feel more like a living-room jam session. 

Opening act Raffaella stepped on stage with a bright blue twirl of her skirt and a set heavy on electric guitar and heartbeat drums. She had the audience bopping along by the first chorus of “Millennial,” her voice cutting through the pink haze like a call to dance. 

“I’m writing my first record,” she told the crowd, as they clapped through two new songs before she closed with “BLONDE,” a buzzing anthem somewhere between bedroom pop and garage rock.

Between sets, the DJ queued up Sabrina Carpenter’s “Juno” and the band walked out at 9:30 p.m. to roaring applause and Owl City’s “Fireflies,” a nostalgic inside joke for the aughties audience. DiRusso’s smudged eyeliner and white button down untucked over her skirt signaled a cool, laid-back atmosphere. 

Her 15-song setlist included almost every track on her debut album, “Super Pedestrian,” that came out early this March as well as some of her older singles, such as “Don’t Swerve” and “Coming Soon,” which went viral on TikTok in August 2021. 

Flanked by guitarists on either side and a drummer behind her, DiRusso, with her own acoustic guitar, opened with “Ovid.” The band’s excitement at performing the music live was unmistakable. Next, DiRusso swapped out to an electric guitar and immediately jumped into “Legs,” the new album’s first single, and it was clear the audience knew every word. 

As the instruments died out, the singer-songwriter took a moment to acknowledge how special it was to play her new album in L.A. “Yep, I’m getting chills,” she said. “Thanks for bringing it y’all.” 

She then went on to cheekily tell the audience an “intense” story which, to the audience’s delight, was a thinly veiled retelling of the plot of “School of Rock” (2003), before launching into “Good Ass Movie,” a crowd favorite. The music video, directed by comedian Caleb Hearon, who was also in attendance at the concert, came out last month. The crowd laughed good-naturedly when DiRusso sang, “When I think of my favorite movies a few come to mind / As a child, ‘School of Rock.’” 

The audience was almost comically polite — “This is great!” someone called out early on. “Thanks, y’all,” DiRusso said back, almost shyly, after every song. 

She then followed up with a two-part story comprised of “Hungry” and “Nine Months,” which were written about the same event from different time periods of her life. The rawness of the vocals and the heavy slashes of the guitar echoed through the speakers, complementing her evocative lyrics. 

Her next song, “Leo,” a standout from the night, was introduced with a heartfelt story about her brother and an emotional letter she wrote to him that opened with, “Yo dawg.” Audience members who’d brought their own brothers laughed in recognition and clutched them a little tighter. 

After a few newer songs, when DiRusso played “Wet,” another early single from the one-month-old album, the crowd went wild, singing along deafeningly loud. The band played with easy chemistry, utterly focused on the music, only looking up to grin at each other.

“Wearing Pants Again,” a collaboration with Ruston Kelly, was a welcome break from the rock-heavy music. The singer went back to her acoustic guitar with a song inspired by a subdued moment — when Kelly and DiRusso read their journals back and forth to each other, creating a song from their entries.

When the first few bars of “Don’t Swerve” filtered through the speakers, the audience roared with excitement. As one of DiRusso’s first songs, released in 2018, it played perfectly and got the whole audience dancing along. 

The singer closed out with the much awaited “Coming Soon,” the most joyful song of the night. All three guitarists, with DiRusso in the middle, did a few synchronized dance steps while playing in a line to laughter and cheers. The guitarists on either side performed some fun tricks, playing the guitar positioned behind their heads as DiRusso sang, “I’m doin’ fine / Only losin’ my mind every once in a while.” At the end of the song, the whole band dramatically fell down, lying still on the stage floor as the lights dimmed out. 

The audience took their cue to yell out “Encore! Encore!,” and DiRusso cheekily jumped up and said, “Okay!” before jumping into “It’s Good To Be Hot In The Summer,” the closing track on “Super Pedestrian.”

With a big thank-you, DiRusso and her band waved goodbye to the crowd amid the sound of roaring applause.