Lexi Jayde takes a page out of the girlhood diary on ‘The Lover Girl Tour’
Lexi Jayde stands in a white ruffled dress on the El Rey Theatre’s stage. The singer closed out “The Lover Girl Tour” on Tuesday bringing her self-described fun, talkative and exciting energy to a performance centered on girlhood, crushes and heartbreak. (Joice Ngo/Assistant Photo editor)
“The Lover Girl Tour”
Lexi Jayde
El Rey Theatre
Nov. 3
By Alexis Coffee
Nov. 4, 2026 11:10 p.m.
Lexi Jayde’s last night on tour looked like the inside of a diary. But by the end of the night, the pages began to look familiar.
The 24-year-old Los Angeles native closed out “The Lover Girl Tour” on Tuesday at the El Rey Theatre, bringing her self-described fun, talkative and exciting energy to a performance centered on girlhood, crushes and heartbreak. Following a four-year gap between projects, Jayde returned to the spotlight with her debut album “LOVER GIRL” released on Aug. 21. The singer’s reintroduction was a masterclass in rebranding built on all-too-familiar experiences of romantic idealism and the body image struggles.
The formula worked. Jayde’s stunning stage presence and intimate production transported the audience to her diary. But, as the 80-minute set progressed, its narrow focus began to feel overdone. The strongest moments came when she was able to move away from the typical “I’m just a girl” persona to reveal the messy struggles – beyond boys – that girls in their twenties experience.
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Opening act Ally Salort began the show at 8:15 p.m. with a set of indie heartbreak songs including “Horror Movie,” and Paramore’s “The Only Exception.”
At 9 p.m., velvet red curtains opened to reveal the stage which looked like an old Hollywood set. With streetlamps and vintage table lamps glowing a warm white, a voiceover played between flashes of strobe lighting and the band’s opening instrumental. Jayde then ran on in a long white ruffled dress and long gold necklace, her hair natural and wavy as she started with “sorry for you” and moved into “newbury park.”
The ascending white staircase center stage adorned with white hydrangeas gave the stage an homey, intimate yet grand feel. The setting established the aesthetic of “LOVER GIRL,” crafting a vision of a slightly overdressed girl running through the streets of New York in spring.

Jayde made the stage a part of the performance. Without a microphone stand for most of the night, she had freedom to run, twirl and joke with fans, mouthing ad-libs and interacting with her guitarist and drummer. She kicked off her white Manolo Blahniks and jumped up and down saying she felt free and now wanted to dance. The crowd’s energy escalated, as fans bopped and sang along in the small venue. During “gentle,” fans held up pink roses she took and held for the song.
The most memorable moment came during “bubblebath,” a crowd favorite in which Jayde stepped out of the giddiness and embraced openness with her fans, introducing the song by saying she began writing it in the bath while experiencing panic attacks in the four-year period when she was unable to release music. The upbeat ballad showed vocal range and vulnerability. Fans sang, “Is this forever or does it get better than this?”
That vulnerability however was harder to find in “Delusional Diaries,” a segment where she brought up her roommates and best friends on stage to discuss their romantic misadventures. One friend, Jamisen Jarvis, shared how she thought she was Snapchatting a crush and it ended up being a good friend of hers. The segment was funny, but it also underscored the limits of Jayde’s constructed persona; every story, song and joke circled to the same crushes and heartbreaks. The performances of “delusional” and “hate to be you” drew some of the night’s most enthusiastic reactions, but the repetition of the overall set was hard to ignore.
Jayde was at her best with songs such as “misunderstood” when the music itself took the focus and built into a powerful, explosive bridge section. An acoustic version of “when does it end” stripped her sound back to show her talent. When she hit the wrong note, she screamed and then restarted. Fans laughed and enjoyed the humanness of the mess up, allowing fans to see the deeper side of the Jayde and the joys of performing in real time.
“I’ve missed you longer,” which she played on guitar under pink and purple lighting, had a country-indie feel that was the one real change of pace. Things stood a bit more still, the song sounding different then others on the album and hinting at a possible new era of music for Jayde.

She then talked about her struggles with body dysmorphia on “jeans” and introduced her jeans project, in which she partnered with Project Ropa for fans to bring in a pair of gently used jeans that they don’t feel good in anymore to give to people experiencing homelessness. The moment added a vulnerability and was extremely valuable in showing how struggles can be turned into a purpose other than a rant.
Despite the show’s intimate atmosphere, its technical execution often got in the way. The microphone at times sounded shrilled and screechy and the backing tracks blended in to sound nearly identical to the song’s official recordings, which took away one of the joys of live music; when the performance sounds different than the original.
She played “summer’s over” at the fans’ request from the deluxe version of “LOVER GIRL” and moved into the ballad “i feel it all” as a disco ball at the top of the stage scattered lights across the room. She stood at the top of the stairs for “drunk text me,” the song that prompted the loudest singing from the crowd that night. She closed with “you’re still mine,” a soft conclusion to an otherwise energetic set.
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Jayde has proven she can make the room feel seen. But the most affecting moments of the night were the ones that stepped outside her “LOVER GIRL” persona. Girlhood brought her back to the spotlight, but an identity built around the same crushes and heartbreak can only go so far.
“LOVER GIRL” got her through the door at the El Rey. The next record has to show who else is in the room.
