Staff Editor on January 18th, 2019

0

The origin story of Maggie Rogers’ ascendant career is now well-known: Pharrell Williams flipped over her song “Alaska,” and away she went. On Thursday, the eve of the release of her full-length debut, “Heard It In A Past Life,” everybody at the Fonda Theatre flipped over the 24-year-old Maryland native.

After an opening set by Melanie Faye, Rogers was greeted by a mighty roar as she took the stage, the deafening applause and whoops of approval repeated throughout the night for songs “Dog Years” and “On + Off” (each of which appeared on her 2017 EP) and the new song “Light On.” Rogers ended up performing all 12 songs on the album, pausing in the middle of the set to thank her collaborators and pointing out her parents in the balcony (and thanking them for paying for her music education).

The crowd at the sold-out show chanted “Maggie” and stomped on the floor when the main set ended, and she returned for an encore of “Past Life” and “Fallingwater.” Even after that, the amped-up crowd was reluctant to leave, as the house P.A. blasted Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” So they did.

Setlist: Give a Little, Burning, Say It, Dog Years, Overnight, On + Off, Alaska, The Knife, Retrograde, Light On, Back in my Body. Encore: Past Life, Fallingwater

Photos by Dana Lynn Pleasant