The crowd gathering in an old steel-manufacturing warehouse turned live music venue is buzzing with excitement waiting for Lizzy McApline to hit the stage. The preshow playlist blasts old Disney hits, and with just two more minutes to go before the Brooklyn Steel gig begins, the chorus of Miley Cyrus‘ ‘See You Again’ becomes a sing-a-along. One fan in a white baseball cap is ferociously fist-pumping to the words, another dances erratically to the beat.
Finally, the lights go down, and McAlpine walks out amid screams and cheers, launching into her first track, ‘An Ego Thing’. “I was trying to be honest / You don’t make that easy to do” she chants with the audience backing her vocals. Wearing a long white skirt ornamented in black bows and created by fellow TikTok star Joe Ando-Hirsh, McAlpine makes the stage her home the moment she steps on it, welcoming the sold-out room sweetly before introducing each track.
“This song is about Slurpees” she shares during the first chords of the upbeat sad girl staple ‘All My Ghosts’. The crowd is completely tuned in, with only a handful of phones go up to capture McAlpine’s ethereal voice. As her vocals trickle into the microphone in near studio quality, it’s clear everyone watching knows they want to be completely present for what they’re witnessing.
Despite only being on tour for the past two years, she gracefully flows through each song like a seasoned performer. The stage is set to look like her living room. A wall with two big windows is adorned with posters and photos, a green velvet settee is decorated with a blanket and stuffed animals and an electric piano like the one she used to play as a kid transforms the 1800-capacity venue into the singer’s home.
At one point, all the lights on the stage go out, with only one of the faux windows lit. Aambient rain noises start to play and McAlpine stands under a spotlight with her guitar in hand. “Ceilings, plaster / Can’t you just make it move faster / Lovely to be sitting here with you,” she sings and the crowd is thunderous in response, chanting as if they’ve memorized every word for this specific moment. The opening verse to her TikTok viral hit ‘Ceilings’ come next, and as she sings “You’re kinda cute but it’s raining harder / My shoes are now full of water / Lovely to be rained on with you,” she has everyone wrapped around her finger. She steps away from the mic, and everyone screams the well-loved lyrics of the song’s outro: “But it’s not real and you don’t exist / And I can’t recall the last time I was kissed.”
“This is crazy for me,” she says before moving into her final songs of the night. “I started writing songs when I was 12 in my parent’s basement on the piano with my notebook. This means a lot.”
She closes with the diary-esque final track of her second LP ‘Five Seconds Flat’, ‘Orange Show Speedway’. Two fans in the third row face each other as they sing the words “I fell in love at the Orange Show Speedway / It didn’t look like this three years ago.” Not too far behind them, two concertgoers are dancing like no one is watching. The balcony is shaking along to the beat and everyone is in the moment. McAlpine may have her sights set on her third album, but for now, in her makeshift home, she’s living in the now.
Lizzy McAlpine Played:
‘An Ego Thing’
‘Over-The-Ocean Call (Andrew)’
‘All My Ghosts’
‘Firearm’
‘Doomsday’
‘Give Me A Minute’
‘Nothing / Sad N Stuff’
‘Called You Again’
‘Ceilings’
‘Broken Glass’
‘I Guess’
‘In what World’
‘Erase Me’
‘Come Down Soon’
‘Pancakes For Dinner’
‘Orange Show Speedway’
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