REVIEW: Maggie Rogers @ Wells Fargo Center

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Photos by: Susanna Coyle

Written By: Susanna Coyle

Maggie Rogers brought the Wells Fargo Center to life on October 15th, with her infectious energy and ethereal vocals for the Don’t Forget Me tour. She exuded a youthful carefree joy on stage, drawing in her audience and creating an engaging and extraordinary experience.

Throughout her setlist, Maggie seamlessly transitioned between the tones and energies of her songs. Maggie twirled around the stage in silver sparkles, dancing and kicking her boots to the electrifying power created by the instrumentalists. At other times, Maggie played acoustic guitar and piano with her eyes closed and a soft smile. The lights changed from warm tones to cool tones to match the respective ambiance.

There were no crazy props or visuals on the set. However, it did not seem that those elements were “missing.” The lack of exaggerated lighting and set features put the spotlight on the magic of the music. Maggie shows an authentic love for her artistry. When she sang the music flowed out of her like second nature; her voice never wavered once during the entire concert.

“I’m so, so happy that there is music in the world,” said Maggie. “Because I would have no idea what to do with this big ball of feelings I have otherwise.”

Her voice was out-of-this-world, yet Maggie appeared to be a very down-to-earth person. For a majority of the concert, she wore a simple black sheer slip dress and black boots. Her makeup was natural and throughout the whole concert, she was smiling brightly. She laughed with the audience as she recounted memories of playing with her middle school rock band and feeling like a freak in high school. She even laughed contentedly as she prefaced her song “I Still Do” saying, “The song I’m going to play is really sad. It’s not perfect. But I’m really happy to get to play it.”

It was a wholesome scene; audience members swayed and sang along and for the most part, people didn’t have their cell phones out to capture every moment on video. Instead, everyone was soaking in the music of Maggie’s powerful vocals over layered instrumental parts, like rushing water over rocks in a river. The whole concert felt refreshing and authentic.

For Maggie Rogers, the Wells Fargo performance was full of personal sentiment; not only was it the largest arena she had ever performed at, but among the audience was her artistic mentor, Joshua Mayer, voice teacher, Quinn Corain, her two best friends, and family, including her little brother’s girlfriend.

“I grew up about two hours from here,” said Maggie. “Just begging my sweet parents to take me to live music any chance I could get.”

Numerous times Maggie Rogers looked around the arena in awe, having an “I made it” moment. As she marveled at the audience Maggie commented, “It looks like a fake Hollywood concert. Except it’s real and it’s awesome.”

The scene was certainly cinematic during the final song, “Light On,” as the audience sang in unison with Maggie and confetti rained down from the ceiling. True to the song, the arena was illuminated; light reflected off a small disco ball hanging above Maggie in her long sparkling dress. Her enthralling performance left the audience matching her beaming smile.

Setlist:

That’s Where I Am

2. Drunk

3. So Sick of Dreaming

4. The Kill

5. Want Want

6. Say It

7. Love You for a Long Time

8. On & On & On

9. In the Living Room

10. Dog Years

11. Killing Me Softly with Hs Song (cover)

12. If Now Was Then

13. I Still Do

14. All the Same

15. Alaska

16. Anywhee With You

17. Fallingwater

18. Light On

19. Don’t Forget Me (Encore)

Compiled By: Ava Mosby