Maggie Rogers at Roadrunner, 2/9/23

“This is a record meant to be played live,” Maggie Rogers wrote about her most recent album, Surrender, in an expressive email sent to her mailing list in October, ahead of her UK Feral Joy tour. She repeated this sentiment in front of a sold-out Boston crowd on February 9, 2023, the first night of the tour’s North American run. Following a polished opening set by Maggie’s former bandmate Del Water Gap, a black and white video appeared on the stage backdrop, and a recording of Maggie reciting her poem, also called “Surrender,” began: “When I’m angry or in love, I feel it in my teeth.” 

Maggie, clad in a white dress, sparkling boots, and a feathery shawl, kicked off the show with the album opener “Overdrive.” The song isn’t happy or sad–like the rest of the album, it invokes the excitement of love, the trauma of heartbreak, and near palpable nostalgia all at once. Maggie’s goal isn’t to make her audience feel something specific, but rather to feel anything, and to feel it intensely.

Dramatic red and black lighting set the tone for “Want Want,” an energetic ode to desire, which had me trying not to dance in the photo pit. Then, Maggie settled into “Say It,” from 2019’s Heard It In A Past Life.

Having completed a masters degree at Harvard, Rogers was outright in her love for Boston, dedicating one of her earliest hits, “Love You for a Long Time”, as a “love letter” to the city. It was clear how much she was enjoying the night and the thrill of being back onstage. She was constantly dancing and smiling from ear to ear.  

I was very excited for the performance of “Shatter,” a song that I had resolved to hear live this year, and Maggie did not disappoint. I had not listened as much to the next song, “Begging for Rain,” but as the ballad’s gorgeous chorus rang through the venue, I immediately felt more connected to the music.

Given that Maggie and S. Holden Jaffe of Del Water Gap have known each other since college, there was no surprise when Maggie brought out Jaffe to sing “New Song,” a duet released on Maggie’s album Notes from the Archive: Recordings from 2011-2016. I was previously unfamiliar with this tune, but after hearing Rogers and Jaffe croon the refrain (think Waiting Room by Phoebe Bridgers), it is one of my new favorites. 

After treating her day-one fans to “Alaska” and the deeply empowering “Back in My Body,” Maggie played my two favorite songs from Surrender: “Horses” and “Anywhere with You.” In “Horses,” Maggie surrenders to desperate frustration: Would you come with me or would you resist / Oh, could you just give in? There is the heart-wrenching sadness of fruitless effort, but also the empowerment of breaking free. Even in the midst of pain, Maggie harnesses feral joy.

In “Anywhere with You,” Maggie wants to surrender to love (I wanna lose my mind in a hotel room with you), but like all her music, the song is far from surface level. Her powerful voice and songwriting infused the performance with a multitude of emotions: the aforementioned head-over-heels love, but also trauma from past relationships and the fear of losing someone. The emotional rollercoaster of “Horses” and “Anywhere with You” was definitely my favorite part of the night. 

Rogers continued the strong setlist with “Light On,” a heartfelt love song to her fans, who were equally enamored with her. She chose a perfect closing song with “That’s Where I Am:” the lyrics It all works out in the end were powerful to finish an emotional and intense show. Maggie didn’t want the night to end, and soon she was back on stage, nailing the notes to “Fallingwater.” Then, she introduced the true last song of the night, which she described, in her typical eloquence, as a prayer for peace in a difficult world: “Different Kind of World.” “One last song,” she sang, I’ll sing a song, and make it a song for peace. She had already given the audience so much peace by sharing her music and stories.

Maggie feels anger and love in her teeth. When I heard Maggie Rogers sing, I felt it in my bones.