By Anna Fahy
I will never think of concerts the same way after seeing Maggie Rogers live. My best friend Eliza surprised me with tickets on Christmas, so I traveled home to Boston in mid-February to go. It was the third night of her 3 night stay at Roadrunner. Eliza and I have bonded through Maggie’s music in our separation in college, so there’s no one I’d have rather gone with. We stood outside Roadrunner for around an hour and a half to get into the General Admission pit, and squeezed up to 7 rows back from the stage.
Maggie began with an emotional opening “Overdrive” introducing herself to us in a black coat, matching black skirt and a cut hanes tank. She strutted around the antique carpet covered stage in strong black knee-high combat boots. Her first three songs were a blend of Surrender’s spirit- angst, grit and passion. Maggie showed us her incredible vocal range, her method of letting us all know we were a part of her show, and her attitude in those first few songs. She would look out at us in awe, laughing in amazement at how excited we were to finally see her.
Relaxing into the show pace, I noticed how each song began to feel like a separate mini-show. Each song would end, and Maggie would assume position at another end of the stage, and strike a pose. The lights would change colors, and depending on the colors, either a warm yellow or an angry red, you could predict whether the song would be from a past album or Surrender.
At concerts I like to look for a few things. I am interested in audience behavior, how the artist engages with the audience, and the few songs I get a greater appreciation for after hearing them live.
You could take in a lot about what kind of a musician Maggie is from the way her audience acted during the show. There were barely any phones blocking the intimate GA view, only some arose during her most popular songs, “That’s Where I am” and “Love you For a Long Time.” Fans are too busy jumping around, singing every lyric back, and experiencing the emotional release Maggie hoped for the album to procure. She balances on a unique level between celebrity and musician, one hard for mainstream artists to navigate. Her audience rooted her in the musician category, in how they weren’t obsessed with taking pictures of her, but experiencing Feral Joy with her.
The way Maggie strutted around stage, made eye contact with every person in the room, and laughed along in Feral Joy with us made me feel seen, and loved. It felt like we were experiencing the concert together, that her spastic dancing was her just moving along with the music as we were feeling is too. She didn’t read signs, or talk directly to fans, but she gave us some delicate words during the performance that I’ll never forget.
“I’ve Got a Friend” stood out to me as a song performed live. She began by asking us if we were here with our best friends, at which Eliza and I clutched each other and screamed back to her in Feral Joy. She described her friendships, and how they are one of the most valuable elements of her life. As she performed the song acoustically, I found meaning in each of the lines. “I’ve got a friend who’d been there through it all” Yes, I do, she’s right here! I say in my mind. It was a moment of gratitude, of a calm kind of Feral Joy where singing out your appreciation felt like a weight being lifted off your heart.
Maggie left us with an encore of her last track on Surrender, “Different Kind of World.” She came back onstage with only her guitar to cheers, which quickly dissipated into pin-drop silence as she prefaced the song with a tear-jerking speech. She reflected on the concert we had just had, and had us think about how beautiful it was to “be in a room with other people and for it not to feel terrifying.” She acknowledged the past few years, in sickness, politics and society, and revealed how experiences like this, playing live music and being free together are the things that bring her hope. She then began with “Different Kind of World” to a different kind of crowd, one who took the moment, put their phones down, and sat with the experience, the feeling and the gratitude. This was a powerful Feral Joy that filled the room with love, the perfect way to end the perfect concert.
