Maggie Rogers is on a roll.
On October 5, Rogers played to a sold out crowd at the Wang Theater as part of her ‘Heard It In a Past Life’ tour. Rogers last played in Boston in December when she opened for Mumford and Sons on their Delta Tour. Since then, she has released her debut album, Heart It In A Past Life, in January and toured around the world.
Her concert at the Wang Theater is part of the last leg of her tour, which will conclude on October 20 in Austin, Texas. Even at the end of a grueling tour, Rogers remained booming with energy.
Rogers opened her show with ‘Color Song’, a cut of her 2017 LP ‘Now That The Light Is Fading‘. White and purple lights outlined her shadow from behind a white curtain which fell during the opening beats of ‘Fallingwater’ to reveal Rogers and her band. From the a capella ‘Color Song’ to the soaring, concluding notes of ‘Fallingwater’, the magnitude of Rogers’ voice was on full display right from the start.
Rogers danced through ‘Burning‘, bringing the crowd to life as she bounced around the stage. Though Rogers was the star of the show, Rogers’ strong light production brought the concert to life, setting distinct moods for ‘Say It’ and ‘The Knife‘.
After upbeat singing and dancing, Rogers slowed it down to dedicate ‘Dog Years‘ to a friend in the crowd who recently lost a loved one. Rogers demonstrated her command of the audience as they listened in silence to her instruction to appreciate the night and the moment.
“Tell the people around you that you love them,” Rogers said.
Rogers then played a new, unreleased song ‘I’m Gonna Love You For a Long Time’, which may hint at a more country direction for Rogers. She then moved into a slower number with ‘Past Life‘. The show struggled somewhat here between the unknown and downbeat songs, but she revived the audience as she belted the simmering ‘On + Off‘.
Stopping her show for a brief comedic moment, Rogers took a fan’s phone and made him promise to never text while dancing in the front row of a Maggie Rogers concert ever again. Indeed, Rogers wanted an intimate night with her fans, and nothing could get in the way.
After performing ‘Overnight‘, the crowd seemed most alive as Rogers pounded the cymbal on the drumset to transition to ‘Retrograde‘. She then paused for another moment to talk to the audience, though she struggled to articulate while ‘I love you Maggie’ screams resounded throughout the crowd.
“I’m sorry, the things you are saying are really nice, but I’m having trouble talking when you guys are screaming at me,” Rogers joked.
Rogers also prompted her audience to support Planned Parenthood and HeadCount.
“If you don’t know what those organizations are, then why are you here?” she said.
Perhaps the moment Rogers showcased her musicianship the most after ‘Back In My Body’ was in her ‘Light On’ intro. Center stage, Rogers used a loop to record harmonizing vocals and keyboard notes over each other. She then sang the full song, and the audience reached their loudest and most enthusiastic.
For her encore, Rogers sang an acoustic version of ‘Alaska‘, the song that catapulted her to fame after she played it for Pharell Williams in an NYU masterclass.
“We have one more song to play, and you can probably guess it, because pretty much anybody who knows me, knows me because of this song. I wanted to play it for you the way I wrote it,” Rogers reflected.
As her voice resounded throughout the theater with an entranced audience watching on, Rogers proved one thing: she’s just getting started.