At Portland's Keller Auditorium, Maggie Rogers came into view shadowed behind a white screen, herself veiled in a theatrical gauze cape. As she began singing her number-one hit "Falling Water" with a voice even more sublime live, the audience gasped with every note echoed in the great hall and became entranced by her from the start.
As she belted other tracks off her debut album, Heard It in a Past Life, Rogers continued to impress and entertain, strutting back and forth across the stage, flaunting energetic dance moves and a haunting voice, as brilliant as the stage lights themselves. Though performing like an old pro, Rogers' catapult into stardom was not lost even on her, as she profusely thanked the crowd between songs, remarked on how she had never before played a venue with red chairs, and let the audience in on the murmurs that were crisscrossing the stage between her and her bandmates.
Throughout the show, Rogers never lost her fierce energy—or her audience, for that matter. There was the older crowd who took periodic breaks in their chairs but who still knew all the lyrics, the younger crowd who shamelessly sang along as if they were in their very own private karaoke suite. And my personal favorite—a boy around seven, who stood on his chair, craning his neck over the fans, every so often throwing his mom a hearty "I-can't-believe-I-am seeing- Maggie-Rogers-live!" look. — Micaela Quintana
