Maggie Rogers closed out her North American tour in support of her new album, “Surrender” on March 5th with a completely sold out show in San Francisco. Rogers’ show was an emotional roller coaster for both her and the audience. It was (as the namesake of the tour says) feral joy and infinite awe of Rogers and her ability to captivate the audience from beginning to end.
Beginning with a voice over of Rogers describing what feral joy is, the intro blended into album opener, “Overdrive” as she took the stage. The song itself switches in and out of a crescendo, as the music swells right before the chorus. Following, “Want Want,” she danced with wild fervor, letting the beat drive her movement as she sang into the mic with the audience nowhere near drowning her out. Despite this being a tour to support her latest album, Rogers made sure to sprinkle in crowd favorites from her debut album “Heard it in a Past Life,” with “Fallingwater”, “Retrograde”, and “Say It.”
It’s hard to fit her into any specific genre. Some of her songs are ballads that take R&B influences, others border on country and folk, while some are just all out pop and rock. Even when switching to an acoustic guitar, her energy did not cease. The most captivating part of Rogers’ set was a song she sang with opener, Del Water Gap. They were in a band together during their time at New York University where they wrote “New Song,” an indie folk song about heartbreak. On stage, they switched back and forth between verses, with Rogers on the banjo and Del Water Gap on acoustic guitar. Their voices were distinct and blended harmonies beautifully as they sang together.
Before moving into a three song encore, Rogers dove into “That’s Where I Am,” the first song she released in anticipation of this album. As part of the encore, she said “San Francisco – because this is the last show, we’re going to do something a little special,” and began crowd favorite “Dog Years.” With just the first beat of the song, the audience went ballistic. After catching her breath, Rogers picked up her guitar one last time. As this was the final stop of the tour, she took a moment to look towards the audience and express her gratitude for the support. She continued to strum on her guitar as she spoke, dragging out the final moments of the show. “I don’t really have anything else to say, but I just don’t want this to be over,” she said.
