Wow… Hi. (crowd repeats the greeting, followed by cheers)

Welcome back to the Badlands. (crowd cheers) I have to take a moment to talk to you all because this feels like it’s going by so fast and I don’t want to miss it. I don’t want to miss being here with all of you. Because this is the first headline show I’ve played in the states in like… eight months? (crowd cheers) Wow. Um… it’s really exciting to play the album this way. This is, like, something I’ve - or we, my sister and I (crowd cheers) - we dreamed of doing this and… I can’t believe I’ve already got this opportunity. It’s surreal.

These past few months I’ve been releasing a lot of singles and some of them have changed my life forever - (crowd cheers) - and that’s awesome but… I’m working on another album. (crowd cheers even louder) I wanted to play these shows to remind myself how much I love albums and I needed to remember how much all of you love albums too. Because I want to deliver another album for you… for us… for everyone that loves the stories they deliver, the worlds they create, the marks they make on our memories and our souls.

All of us are here because we’ve had any number of albums turn us into… tiny little babies that feel every note in our bones, because we’ve had those emotions turn into the strength that carries us through our hardest days, and because we need to be around others that feel the exact same way. (crowd cheers)

I know that it can feel like empathy is losing every battle in the world now, but I want you to know that it’s different here. It’s different in this room and in this music and in our world; in our world where feelings are not a flaw and emotions are not a weakness. That is the world we need to grow and nurture and spread as far as we can. So look at the person next to you and know that while your lives may be different in so many ways, we are all one and the same here… in the Badlands… and I fucking love you! (crowd cheers wildly)

So… (Vee chuckles) um… well, here’s a song about my ex-husband! (crowd cheers lead into "Strange Love")

(Vee laughs) I’d say that was gonna get me in trouble but come on, you all knew that. (crowd cheers)

So, I finished this album when I was twenty. (crowd cheers) It’s kind of crazy to think about. I fell in and out of love for the first time… the second time… the third time. (crowd laughs with Vee) I was discovering who I was, the good and the bad. The moments of invincibility and the moments of pure destruction. I had always felt a push and pull on who I was "supposed" to be. Like a thousand different expectation vs. reality areas of life where I always disappointed someone.

Writing this album was a confrontation with that and with myself and with the ways in which I would forget her and find her and forget her and find her based on other people. I can’t say I finished the album above all of that but uh, releasing it… (crowd cheers) releasing this album really helped me find out who I wanted to be, for myself and for those around me… including all of you. (crowd cheers)

I guess I really am a fool for sacrifice… (Vee laughs as crowd cheers lead into "Coming Down")

Thank you. (crowd cheers wildly as Vee takes a deep breath) Wow. Thank you.

Anyone that’s been to one of my shows before has probably noticed that I’m not talking as much as I usually do. I’ll admit I’m a little nervous. And I’m like anxiously waiting for the shit that usually happens, like a dude in the fifth row or the balcony that got dragged to the show by his girlfriend will start screaming, "Shut the fuck up. Come on, just play your songs!" You know what I mean? "Play Closer! Play Closer!" (crowd cheers)

I’m not fucking playing Closer. (crowd cheers louder as Vee laughs) Not fucking happening. And fuck jackasses like that, who think they can talk to me like that at my goddamn show. (crowd cheers wildly) And if you’re gonna yell for me to sing any song that defined my early career, I would hope it’d be this next one…

(crowd cheers lead into "Ghost")

Thank you. Truly… thank you so much. (crowd cheers)

Before this is over, I have to admit something… I love what I do but… I can’t for the life of me figure out why you picked me. (crowd cheers and screams words of encouragement) I really can’t. I look around sometimes at the people that are considered my peers and I’m like, in what fucking world? Have you seen some of them and what they do? I’m up here in a fucking t-shirt, running out of breath, not hitting every note, and… (Vee laughs as the crowd cheers) I don’t know, there’s just such a disconnect there that I can’t wrap my head around.

But I look out from this privileged spot you’ve allowed me to have and… I can’t thank you enough. (crowd cheers) When I get to be on this stage, I feel like I’m made of some kind of stardust; it’s otherworldly and beyond words. Music is religion to me and I will always respect the sanctity of that, the sanctity of what I’m trying to bring to it and also what you’re bringing too. (crowd cheers)

Thank you for your love of music, of my music, and especially of live music. (crowd cheers wildly) Thank you.