On Monday, Oct. 2, the band boygenius performed at Madison Square Garden as part of their tour for their debut album “the record.” The band consists of three members: Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, who are all also individual artists. The show was opened by MUNA. Bridgers came out to sing her part of her song with MUNA called “Silk Chiffon.” The night was filled with a mixture of screams and tears as people sang their hearts out.
Boygenius started the show a cappella with the song “Without You Without Them,” which started backstage and had the camera follow them out onto the main stage where they began their performance of the upbeat rock song “$20.” It was a good way to highlight their voices as a group before starting the rest of their performance.
The song “$20” was followed by another heavy guitar song called “Satanist,” which brought the energy in the stands to a high as the crowd screamed the lyrics “kill the bourgeoisie.” The end of the song was a bit slow with a steady drum and guitar to back their vocals and give the fans time to cool down.
There was a moment later in the show where the three artists each got to sing one of their own songs. It started with Dacus’ “Please Stay,” then moved to Baker’s “Favor” and ended with Bridgers’s “Graceland Too.” Each song was slow and heartfelt; there were no dry eyes in the crowd.
Transitioning back into their shared songs, they picked back up with “Me & My Dog” from their debut EP. Dacus asked the crowd to hold up pictures of their dog for the show, to which those who could gladly did.
The fans threw carnations onto the stage for the performance of “We’re In Love,” in honor of the lyrics, “In the next one, will you find me? / I’ll be the boy with the pink carnation pinned to my lapel / Who looks like hell and asks for help.” Dacus, who leads the song, held one of the carnations up to the lapel of her suit as she looked out at the crowd.
In a special moment of the show, Bridgers asked for the audience to put away their cellphones for the performance of “Letter to an Old Poet.” While there were a handful of people who ignored the request, it made for a sweet moment of performer-to-fan connection. Before Bridgers sang the song, she said, “If you relate to this song, I’m sorry.”
Later in the night, they took to a separate stage towards the back to acoustically perform all four songs from their new EP “the rest,” which came out on Friday, Oct 13. For each song, they lit up the arena in a different color: red for “Black Hole,” purple for “Afraid of Heights,” blue for “Voyager” and orange for “powers.”
Ending the show with “Salt In the Wound” on the main stage gave the crowd that last drop of energy to end the night. MUNA sang along on the B-stage. As Baker was shredding on her guitar, Bridgers went crowd-surfing before returning to the main stage where she and Dacus pulled apart their white button-downs and spun around in each other’s arms. The duo then fell to the ground in a hug. It was a beautiful and electrified way to show their personalities and end the show.
Throughout the night, there was a mixture of head bangs and sobs shared in the crowd. Boygenius knew how to take control of the room and make a night out of it, using their lyrics and musical talent to make the show unforgettable for the audience.
