LP performs at Fox Theater in Oakland on May 20, 2022. Matthew Medina/STAFF.

OAKLAND — Earlier in the day on Friday, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, of the Catholic Church, announced that he would refuse communion to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi until she turns back from the “grave evil she is perpetrating” by supporting legal abortion. Of course, he did this via Twitter. Now, I’m not Catholic, but as was explained by one of my former editors, who is (was) and just about ratio’d this archbishop, this sacrament is considered holy and hugely important to Catholics. For Cordileone to withhold it in a political power play is hypocrisy. Not very welcoming, is it?

This brings us to Friday night’s LP concert at the Fox Theater. The artist, born Laura Pergolizzi, released an album called Churches late last year, and they painted a much better picture of what church should be than the San Francisco archbishop.

“My church is love/ My church includes all of the above/ No questions askеd/ No one to judge,” LP sang on the title track, about three-fourths of the way through the show. While most of the concert consisted of uplifting and anthemic rockers, this was a rare quiet moment, where the point needed to be drilled in.

LP performs at Fox Theater in Oakland on May 20, 2022.

LP’s voice quivered and fluttered as they strummed an acoustic guitar, sitting on a stool at the front of the stage, backlit by two criss-crossing spotlights: “When I stepped into a chapel just to see/ When a woman has to hide their head from God to get a seat/ In any holy place, that’s not the place for me.”

LP is not from San Francisco and may not have have even heard about the news, but nonetheless, they spent most of the show offering up a much more welcome version of their church.

Backed by a four-member band, LP walked down a short staircase, guitar strapped to their back. The band opened with the atmospheric “When We Touch,” which soon turned aggressive with LP belting along to a thundering kick drum, and then whistling in their signature way to end the song. That was followed by the euphoric “Goodbye” and anthemic “Girls Go Wild.” Most in the room waved their arms and clapped along to LP’s encouragement. On the bassy “Everybody’s Falling in Love,” LP sang with a yelp. The song carried an EDM flow, even including a bass drop.

The majority of the set consisted of the newer songs, but they did throw in a handful from 2018’s Heart to Mouth, and 2016’s Lost on You, most notably closing the show with their biggest hit, the title track of the latter album.

LP performs at Fox Theater in Oakland on May 20, 2022.

“When We’re High” offered up a disco rhythm, and during the song a crew member danced out to hand something to LP before making his way off the stage. The following “No Witness” had a crunchy bass and guitar riff and a squelchy ’90s rock guitar solo in between a chugging melody. And on rocker “Strange,” LP broke out a harmonica before holding their microphone over the crowd as fans sang the refrain, “We are never, never, never, never gonna change.”

During the songs, LP paced back and forth betwern two short risers at both ends of the stage. Sometimes, they would kneel down to sing into a cell phone or make eye contact. At one point, they stopped to take pictures with some fans in the front row—for nearly five minutes.

“Sorry for interrupting the show,” LP said, before launching into “Safe Here.”

It was LP’s first Bay Area appearance in a little more than three years.

“This show has been rescheduled four times! Amazing!” LP said a good eight or nine songs into the show in their first address to the crowd. It was at least partly true. The show was first postponed because of an illness (before the pandemic) and then more times after that because of COVID.

Nick Leng performs at Fox Theater in Oakland on May 20, 2022.

The show’s other highlights included “The One That You Love,” on which LP provided some of their most powerful belting, bass-laden older tune “Muddy Waters” (which concluded in a controlled freakout with LP slamming a tambourine into some drum cymbals) and the folky, acoustic “Can’t Let You Leave” and “Rainbow;” the latter performed solo by LP and their guitarist.

Singer-songwriter Nick Leng, who’s from South Africa and lives in L.A., opened the show with a set that fused his Brill-Building-like and sometimes jazzy piano playing with psychedelic and sometimes poppy arrangements that worked in frenetic drumming. Or, to put it another way, some of his songs sounded like music compositions from the ’50s and ’60s (think Beatles or Beach Boys) but with early (good) Coldplay.

Leng, a drummer and their box of backing tracks impressed most with the rollicking “Ticking” and “Walking Home to You,” and the moody set closer; this was the one that sounded like it could have been off Coldplay’s Parachutes.

“I just wrote this song yesterday; or maybe it was the day before yesterday?” Leng said in a moment of levity as an introduction to a song called “Spirals.” The song is not quite that new; he’s played it for a few weeks, at least, but it was just uploaded one day earlier. The song began with a cascading melody but soon shifted to power pop, a jazzy interlude and a classical finish.

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter. Follow photographer Matthew Medina at Twitter.com/matts2kool and Instagram.com/matts2kool.