Asking the sold out crowd at Madison Square Garden on Monday night (10/2) if anyone had been at one of their 2018 Brooklyn Steel shows, Phoebe Bridgers, Julien Baker, and Lucy Dacus, aka boygenius, acknowledged that that had been a very different show — and, as they’d discussed in group therapy, it had been a memory for all three of a time they’d felt present. That boygenius’ live show has room for both vulnerable admissions from therapy and rock star moves like crowd surfing (Phoebe) and flashing the crowd (Phoebe and Lucy) feels like almost a given at this point, but seeing them bring that same balance to the grand scale of MSG, one of their biggest headlining shows to date, still felt like a wonder to behold.
boygenius’ set this tour is largely the same as the one they brought to Forest Hills Stadium over the summer, a well-paced trip through the material from their 2018 debut EP and this year’s fantastic The Record, with one solo song each from Phoebe, Lucy, and Julien. It’s alternatingly soaring and devastating, with rockers like “$20,” “Satanist,” and “Anti-Curse” interspersed with slower, sadder songs like “Emily I’m Sorry” that had security handing out tissues to the people up front. Visuals were mostly swirling distortions of the boys in turn, but in a very poignant turn on “Bite The Hand,” which Lucy previously told Rolling Stone is about having a “complicated relationship with fans,” the cameras are turned back on the crowd as the trio harmonize on the repeated refrain of “I can’t love you how you want me to.”
Speaking of harmonies, they sounded as gorgeous as you’d expect, even though Julien admitted that she’d been struggling with volume and hitting her notes in rehearsals, the result of a psychological block on singing that she’d been working through with the support of her fellow boys, who she said had given her her voice back.
The big departure from their usual set came at the end of the main set, when boygenius left the stage to stand on a smaller stage on the opposite end of the floor and perform each song from their new EP the rest ahead of its release later this month.
MUNA, who opened the show, also played the B-stage during boygenius’ set-ending extravaganza for “Salt in the Wound.” During their own set, vocalist Katie Gavin called MSG “the capital of friends being horny with each other onstage,” and as they often do, they brought out Phoebe for a set ending “Silk Chiffon.” It was a lovefest all around, with Julien calling MUNA “our collective favorite band” during boygenius’ set.
Check out pictures from Monday night below, along with attendee-taken video and boygenius and MUNA’s setlists.
Pre-order The Rest in the BV store.
SETLIST: BOYGENIUS @ MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, 10/2/2023
Without You Without Them (from backstage)
$20
Satanist
Emily I’m Sorry
True Blue
Cool About It
Souvenir
Bite the Hand
Revolution 0
Stay Down
Leonard Cohen
Please Stay
Favor
Graceland Too
Me & My Dog
We’re in Love
Anti‐Curse
Letter to an Old Poet
Not Strong Enough
B-Stage
Black Hole
Afraid of Heights
Voyager
Powers
Encore:
Ketchum, ID
Salt in the Wound (with MUNA on B-Stage)
SETLIST: MUNA @ MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, 10/2/2023
What I Want
Number One Fan
Stayaway
Runner’s High
Home by Now
Taken
No Idea
One That Got Away
Anything but Me
I Know a Place
Silk Chiffon (with Phoebe Bridgers)