Project Description

Maggie Rogers

@ Festival Hall

23/05/19

(Live Review)

Reviewer: Kelsey Hentschel

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MAGGIE ROGERS // Photo – Lauren Connelly

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ABBA’s ‘Dancing Queen’ gets the crowd in the mood before Rogers struts on stage to perform songs from her newly minted major label debut ‘Heard It In A Past Life’. Floating onto the stage in an all-white ensemble with a pop  of red added by an enormous sheer red scarf. Without even opening her mouth the singer radiated star quality.

Rogers’ vocals are instantly impressive, as is her four-piece live band who offer seamless accompaniment throughout the entirety of the set. Unsurprising, all the same – this is how it should be for a graduate of one of the world’s premiere music programs at NYU. Rogers’ may owe her education to her flawless musicality, however it is her personality that cements her performance as something special.

Songs such as ‘Burning’, and ‘Say It’ further showcase Rogers’ vocal prowess and her ability to pen modern day pop songs. More prominent live, ‘Dog Years’ showcases her innate ability to make simple melodies magical and induce the expected mass sing along with ease. ‘Dog Years’ from 2017’s ‘Now That The Light is Fading’ EP was the first track of show not to derive from her debut album. It was here where Maggie addressed the crowd to show appreciation for the magnitude of the show, explaining how she took a leap of faith and upsized the venue to Festival Hall a 4,000 cap show over the original plan of the 2,000 cap Forum theatre.

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MAGGIE ROGERS // Photo – Lauren Connelly

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Maggie Rogers grew up in a rural section of Eastern Maryland along the banks of the Miles River. She spent her upbringing sound tracked to folk music. Rogers learned to play the harp and banjo as a kid and even as she started college, at NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music in 2012, she was still writing folk-centric melodies. But the singer credits a semester abroad in Europe to her musical discovery. Maggie stumbled upon the power of electronic dance music, and how “something so inherently inhuman could become the most natural thing”.

The 25-year-old’s catapult into the public eye is well documented. Pharrell Williams visited NYU & was visibly stunned and left speechless after hearing the unmastered version of ‘Alaska’. The YouTube video of this encounter circulated the internet propelling Rogers into the thick of her career. Although she became a viral sensation, she had the enormous talent to back it up. With time since to hone and craft her unique blend of electro-fused folk, she released her major label debut album ‘Heard It In A Past Life’ this.

‘The Knife’ sticks out, offering Maggie Rogers the chance to show the world her old-school R‘N’B vocal chops. After this song, and right as the intro to the next track began Rogers yells to the band and sound techs to “STOP!”. “I’m still out of breath from that last song and I wanna sing this next one with my whole body”. She went on to talk about how she loves songs with a lot of feeling and how this next one has “A lot of teeth”. Once Rogers regained her breath, she went on to perform ‘Retrograde’.

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MAGGIE ROGERS // Photo – Lauren Connelly

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Finishing up the set with her 5 minute long debut single ‘Fallingwater’ the crowd joined in in an unlikely anthemic song. It gave me chills. I’m sure I’m not the first and won’t be the last to liken Maggie to the icon Stevie Nicks. This song in particular solidified the connection for me. Two “Witchy Feminist Rockstars”.

By the time Maggie Rogers’ world tour returns to Melbourne – and no doubt it will – she’ll be playing Rod Laver or Melbourne Arena. The hype is more than justified: Rogers is paving the way in the new wave of popstars.

Sneaking back onstage solo for an encore performance. “Thanks so much for being here. This is my last song, see you soon…” said Maggie before crooning out the lyrics acapella to her EP lullaby ‘Color Song’. I’ve never seen anyone with such power in their voice. An unusual way to close a set, but as Rogers stated “Its incredibly hard for me to get to sleep after a show because my adrenaline is flowing. I’d like to take it down to close if you’ll let me”. The entire venue fell into complete silence for the duration of the song. There was an eerie feeling over the hall, it was magical.

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MAGGIE ROGERS // Photo – Lauren Connelly

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Connect with MAGGIE ROGERS
@OneBigLink

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