I believe we come into life unexpectedly, and if we are lucky, we find the video of Maggie Rogers singing “Fallingwater” on Saturday Night Live. It is a raw performance by an artist who knows that multiple things can be true at the same time — pain, suffering, joy and music. At Rogers’ sold-out Madison Square Garden show on Oct. 19, part of “The Don’t Forget Me Tour” for her 2024 titular album, she displayed all of these emotions while expressing deep gratitude to New York City for giving her the chance to perform her first arena show in the place where her career began.
Like many others, I first discovered Rogers, a former NYU student, through that viral video in which pop star Pharrell Williams said he had “zero, zero, zero notes” after she played her “Alaska” to him in a master class at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. That moment was the turning point and start of her career. She graduated from NYU in 2016 with degrees in music production and English, and in addition to “Alaska,” she has released a number of singles along with her album “Heard It in a Past Life” in 2019 and “Surrender” in 2022. To me, her music is like the comfort food of pop music — familiar and satisfying, not necessarily groundbreaking, yet always delightful.
At MSG, I watched as Rogers rose from below the stage, embodying the essence of a performer who had reached great heights without shedding the vibrant and infectious spirit captured in the video with Williams — whenever she smiled during the show, I found myself doing the same. She sang “That’s Where I Am,” a song on “Surrender,” as she ascended to the stage, and I could sense that it was the beginning of a vulnerable and authentic performance, defined by her sincere love and gratitude for the city.
At the start, an unsettling calm loomed in the air as Rogers sang in her silver dress, but that feeling quickly dissipated when the curtain separating the artist from her band fell. She removed the silver dress to reveal a black one underneath and picked up a guitar to perform “So Sick of Dreaming,” off of the newest album. She established an inviting ambiance and created a living room-like atmosphere, with carpets covering half the stage and warm blue and pink lights around her. The band matched her all-black look, emphasizing that she wasn’t aiming to put on a glamorous show — she simply wanted to jump around, move her body and shake her head freely, as she always does when she performs.
The highlight of the show came in the middle, when Rogers lit incense and began playing the introduction to “I Still Do” while speaking to the audience. She compared her career to the video game “Rock Band,” where players simulate being in a band, progressing through levels by performing increasingly difficult songs and rising to higher levels of fame, with the final stage being a performance at the arena. She thanked the crowd for “making it to the end of the video game” with her and shared a handwritten list of the venues she had performed in New York City — over 20, including Irving Plaza, Mercury Lounge, Bowery Ballroom and Radio City Music Hall. She then sang “I Still Do” and shed a few tears.
“I remember thinking how impossible it would feel to get 600 people to come see me play, and I really do believe that the push-up to go from zero to 600 is just as hard as getting from 600 to here,” Rogers said during the show. “I think I will probably end up, in the grand score, having cried more unbelievable tears that night than this one because in my mind Bowery Ballroom is the biggest venue in the entire world.”
She slowed things down during this part of the show and performed “All The Same” as well before closing this section with a stripped-down version of “Alaska.” She then rejoined her band, now in a sparkly black dress, to perform some of her more well-known songs, including “Light On” and “Fallingwater.”
The entire performance was truly magnetic, and I often found myself glancing around the arena to remind myself that I was surrounded by thousands of others. At times, it felt as if it were just Rogers and me. The absence of a vocal backing track enhanced the authenticity of the experience — if I closed my eyes, I could easily have been lying on my bed, queuing her music on Spotify.
It was a performance that demonstrated how seemingly insignificant events and ordinary moments can be shattered and reformed, imbued with new meaning, ultimately becoming the bones of a compelling story. For her, each venue she played was a stepping stone in her journey to MSG. In the city that she was “born” from, poised forever between her dreams and reality, I believe that better things will continue to happen for Rogers. Her show at MSG wasn’t the “final level” — it was really just the first step.
Contact Adrianna Nehme at [email protected].
