By Macayla Cook
If there is one thing to know about me, it is that I am a sucker for a well-made pop album. Give me any example of what I call “the Taylor Swift effect” and I will absolutely eat it up. I almost wish I could be a music snob and traffic in indie bands with less than 500k monthly listeners, but alas, I love both the indie underground and the pop girlies. Can’t a girl do both in peace?
My personal favorite example of the Taylor Swift effect? Maisie Peters. I first listened to her music in 2020 after hearing a snippet of her song “Psycho” on Tiktok (I know, I’m sorry), and promptly fell in love with her debut album, You Signed Up for This. On the very first song of that album, the title track, Maisie sings “don’t go out much because there’s too many bugs/and I’m way too obsessed with death to do any drugs,” and from that moment on I knew I was going to be a fan because she’s just so real for that.
After years of being a perfectly normal level of obsessed, thank you very much, I finally saw my opportunity to fully own that obsession on March 27, when I happened upon Maisie’s Instagram post announcing the tour for her then-upcoming album. An opportunity to see one of my favorite artists at the Fillmore, a venue that I love? Sign me up, thanks. One text to my co-host Makena and I was proudly purchasing two tickets to see Miss Maisie Peters on October 10. The countdown to that night began thusly.
Maisie’s album, The Good Witch, came out in May, and it is absolutely one of my favorite albums of this year (according to my AOTY ratings, it’s second only to Caroline Polachek’s flawless sophore record Desire, I Want to Turn Into You). The album moves rapidly from hot girl anthems to devastating heartbreaking ballads, tracing the course of a breakup as Maisie and the listeners come to terms with the end of a relationship that meant a lot. I love a good relationship concept album, as evidenced by my love of Waterparks’ FANDOM, so I was in from the first single, “Body Better.” The album did not disappoint. It all slaps. I accidentally hit a pole while driving once because I can’t back up but also because I was so focused on the perfection that is “Run.”
Suffice it to say, I was very excited for this concert.
Makena and I left for the Fillmore, a general admission venue, at around 4:15. The concert technically started at 7, and we wanted to be near the front. Being barricade at a concert had been on my bucket list for a long time, and I figured there was no better person to do it with than Makena, who has camped out for shows a few times before and knows the ropes at this point. Maisie is also still a decently small artist with a lot of casual fans and a smaller, close-knit community of superfans, so when we got to the line, it wasn’t too long (according to Makena, significantly shorter than the line she waited in to get a good place at a Conan Gray concert last year). We happily made our way to the back of the line, content with the odds of being within the first 10 rows at least.
What is this, Disney World?
A few women were walking through the line with iPads, notifying us that if we wanted, we could pay $20 a person to essentially be guaranteed a spot on the barricade. We deliberated excitedly and eventually, thanks to girl math, decided to go through with it. After all, the tickets had been roughly $20 each. $40 is a perfectly normal price for a concert ticket, and in this case, that $40 ticket is guaranteed to be at the front. So totally worth it.
After a lot of waiting in line and being the proud recipients of friendship bracelets (mine says “I am unhinged” in reference to Maisie’s song “BSC” and I am obsessed with it), the moment finally came. It was 6 pm. Into the Fillmore we speed-walked, dedicated to our mission. When we arrived at the stage, the barricade was filling up quickly, but we managed to snag a spot in the second row towards stage right. We could reach out and touch the barricade. Personally, I was content to add a green check emoji to my bucket list.
The pre-show playlist was a lot of fun. “About You” by The 1975 played, to which I screeched “HERE?” I am extremely emotionally susceptible to The 1975 songs and was not emotionally prepared for that jump scare. However, “Shut Up and Drive” by Rihanna played right afterwards and Makena started showing me a lip sync from RuPaul’s Drag Race, so all was well that ended well.
There were also three Taylor Swift songs on the pre-show playlist (“Mr. Perfectly Fine,” “Anti-Hero,” and “Holy Ground”), all of which were screamed. I love girls.
The opening act, Grace Enger, came out promptly at 7, just her and her acoustic guitar. She sang for about 45 minutes, and my expert conclusion is that she is incredibly talented. Oftentimes I find myself sort of tuning out the openers, but Grace commanded attention with the simple power of her voice. During her final song, “The Neighborhood,” I found myself getting chills. Definitely check out her stuff, she seems like a super sweet person with a whole lot of talent to be shared with the world.
Finally, 9 pm rolled around. The lights went dark. The crowd screamed. The band entered. After some suspense from the extremely talented band, Maisie’s voice rang out from the speakers, loud and clear. “Still me here/do you think I forgot about you?” The first line of the album’s opener, “The Good Witch.” The crowd went absolutely wild. This was essentially reminiscent of the whole concert from that point on. Philadelphia loves Maisie Peters, and her entrance onto the stage was met with cheers that damn near shook the ground.
Makena and I found ourselves absolutely thrilled at how close to the stage we were. After the second song, “Coming of Age,” an upbeat number that involved lots of jumping and yelling, Makena turned to me and simply said “$20. SO WORTH IT.” I would have to agree. We were so close that we could read the words on Maisie’s shirt, which read “if he makes you smile, he’s blocked.” This is a lyric from “Run,” fitting with the trend of her tour outfits consisting of baby tees bearing lyrics from the album. Some past lines include “the best thing that almost happened to you,” “women’s hearts are lethal weapons,” and my personal favorite, “little miss unstable.” Did I mention she’s a great lyricist? Because she’s a great lyricist.
Maisie puts on a really great show, constantly moving back and forth to different ends of the stage for more upbeat songs and strumming her guitar at center stage for the sad ones. At one point, she played what she described as “a medley of my most heartbreaking songs” that included a segment of “Night Changes” by One Direction. Her mic stand was almost fully covered in fan-made friendship bracelets. During “John Hughes Movie,” she wore a lesbian pride flag that someone threw onstage as a cape. Before playing “Run,” she asked the audience to tell stories of the most unhinged and ridiculous things men have said to them. A girl told a story of her ex-boyfriend messaging her on Pinterest asking her not to get a restraining order against him, which, side note, is truly wild. Maisie knows how to engage a crowd and interact with her fans, creating an environment that feels safe and reminiscent of the ever-sacred girl talk. We can all talk about how crazy that one girl’s ex-boyfriend was together because we’re all just one of the girls, and we’re all friends here. It’s a very cool environment to be in.
As a result of this one-of-the-girls mentality, the fans were really invested, which was really fun to be a part of. There was no difficulty getting audience participation at any point in the set. For example, one song off the album, “Watch,” features a call-and-response throughout the song, and us fans were more than happy to scream “what the fuck?!” in response to Maisie’s “you look better.” However, the loudest audience line of that song was by far the bridge, completing the line “I’m still here/in my loafers” with a rousing “WITH A SMOOTHIE” that echoed throughout the venue. Yet, just when you thought the audience could not possibly be louder, it came time for “The Band and I.”
The end of the bridge, right before the final chorus contains the line, “in Philadelphia, it was crystal clear/we are the best damn band that’s ever played right here.”
It was the loudest moment of the entire show by far.
There are certain moments during concerts that you know you’ll remember forever, or at least, I have quite a few. I’ll always remember Taylor Swift performing “This Love” at the 1989 World Tour, my first concert. I’ll always remember being 11 years old, crying to “Amnesia” at 5 Seconds of Summer’s first headline tour. And I will absolutely always remember “The Band and I,” live in Philadelphia. It was just so clearly special.
Speaking of special moments, the encore. The main show ends with an upbeat single, “Cate’s Brother.” It’s a lot of fun, a lot of jumping, and a great end to a concert. However, after a few minutes of chanting, Maisie re-emerged from the wings, Grace Enger in tow (remember her?). I knew what was coming. A song that made me cry the first time I heard it. A song that still means so much to me. Makena turned to me and said “have your moment.” And all of a sudden, it was happening, the song I’d been waiting for that would solve all of my problems: “History of Man.”
The closing track of The Good Witch is a devastating song about how men have been breaking women’s hearts since the beginning of time. “I’ve tried to rewrite it, but I can’t/it’s the history, the history of man.” It’s a constant in life, unfortunately. And I genuinely think that screaming this song fixed a lot of my problems.
If I want to make one thing clear in this article, it’s that Maisie can write a bridge. She originally went viral on Tiktok for the bridge of “Not Friends (I’m Trying),” another moment during the concert where I was genuinely light-headed by the final chorus. She is the Taylor Swift effect to a t in that if the verses are sad, the bridge is a truly gut-wrenching experience, and “History of Man” is Maisie at her most visceral. Each line just builds so well until it just gets to a truly ridiculous level of catharsis and heartbreak and hope and sadness and every other emotion that the human heart is capable of feeling.
“He stole her youth and promised heaven/the men start wars, yet Troy hates Helen/women’s hearts are lethal weapons/did you hold mine and feel threatened?/hear my lyrics, taste my venom/you are still my great obsession.”
Even reading it gives me chills. I was a mess by the end of this song.
Maisie brings it home with “Lost The Breakup,” a loud, exciting single. The live version features a keytar solo and an extended ending, both of which are so much fun. Experiencing this with tears still drying on my cheeks was odd, but also exhilarating. There’s really no other way the show could’ve ended.
The merch line was super long, but I got a very cute poster and a t-shirt that says “Maisie Peters is my witchy girlfriend,” so I think it was worth it.
Long, long article short, I cannot recommend going to see Maisie Peters in concert enough. It was an awesome night. There was a lot of buildup for a person like me who has been a fan for so long now, but I think anyone would have had an awesome time. The singing, the dancing, the crying, and the laughing all culminated in a very fun, cathartic night, and I think anyone seeking a good time deserves a spot in that room. Not on the barricade, though- you can leave that one to me.