Michigan native Ingrid Andress brought her Good Person headlining tour to West Michigan last week, and writer James Shotwell was on hand to cover every note.

Ingrid Andress is the exception. Andress is a beacon for owning your mistakes in a genre filled with songs about jaded lovers and how others have done you wrong. She’s making a focused effort to remind us we are all in this together, even if it doesn’t feel like it, and that we all impact the trajectory of each others’ lives. Her music embraces our role in our destiny, and she wears her battle scars like trophies of lessons learned.

On Thursday, March 23, Andress made her first headlining appearance at The Intersection in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as part of the Good Person tour. Named after the album of the same name, the highly-anticipated show packed roughly 650 midwesterners into a crowded all-ages club show brimming with flannels and hard seltzer. Children, though few and far between, were hoisted on their parents’ shoulders or peering between the bars of the elevated levels while finicking with their oversized hearing protectors. 

Newcomer Madeline Edwards kicked off the night with a stripped-down set that found the Texas native performing with just an electric guitar or piano for accompaniment. That was a stark departure from her rock-friendly 2022 debut album, Crashlanded, but you wouldn’t know it from watching Edwards perform. With a voice powerful enough to chase the darkness out of the day, Edwards commanded the stage as she tore through a condensed version of thoroughly engaging material. 

The highlight of Edward’s set was the instantly infectious “Mama, Dolly, Jesus,” which feels destined for crossover success.

A brief intermission between sets gave way to a darkened room and the moody synthesizer of “Good Person” as Andress took the stage. After leading the crowd through her aspiration title track, the Michigan native briefly greeted her home state followers before kicking things into high gear with the fan-favorite cut, “Seeing Someone Else.” 

As Ingrid Andress and her followers sang louder still with each passing song, I couldn’t help noticing the crowd bathed under the bright venue lights. People of all ages could be seen in the flashes of the strobe. Some were wearing smiles or screaming with joy, but others were far more emotional. Clearly, the same raw nerve that led Andress to write this material was struck in these individuals, and this music had gotten them through something the rest of us would never understand. That’s the beauty of music. It does that for each of us in its way. But to see it so clearly present in such a small space reinforced what makes this art form so important. 

With so much material from her recent record focusing on endings and beginnings, it only felt right that Andress performed those songs in the state where it all began on her biggest tour. The girl who left Michigan before she could walk has returned a successful woman fully aware of who she is, what she wants, and how to get there. She’s far from perfect, but she’ll be the first to tell you that, and she’s detailing her path to personal growth through songs that echo in your chest cavity long after they’ve ended.

Ingrid Andress Setlist:

Good Person
Seeing Someone Else
How Honest Do You Want Me To Be?
Waste Of Lime
Both
Treated Me Good
Boys
Ladylike
More Hearts Than Mine
Yearbook
Talk
Life Of The Party
Falling For You
Pain
Wishful Drinking
Things That Haven’t Happened Yet
Feel Like This
Blue