Maya Hawke graced the stage at Buckhead Theatre on June 2 in Atlanta, Georgia, to debut her most recent album Chaos Angel. This performance followed after two previous shows in Nashville, Tennessee, the day before. Chaos Angel is the third studio album that the indie-folk artist released in full on May 31, 2024.
Hawke didn’t need an opener to start the show for her, the crowd was ready and so excited to see her when she walked on stage at 8:30pm. She started off the show with “Dark,” which is the second song off her album and was released as a single before the official release. She then went into “Big Idea” and “Okay” before chatting with the crowd. It was her first time playing a show in Atlanta and you could tell that she was just as excited as her fans to be there! She played “Wrong Again” and then transitioned into “Better,” which was a song that genuinely shocked me when I was listening through the album for the first time on Friday. This song might be one of my favorites off her new album because it was such a new sound from her yet it fits into the album very well!
While she was debuting her new album with this show, she also played some of her songs from her previous albums Moss and Blush, as well as “Sweet Tooth.” The crowd was surprised and thrilled to hear that she was playing some of her other songs. The crowds’ reaction when she started “Sweet Tooth” was so sweet (no -pun intended)! She then went back to playing songs off of Chaos Angel with the first song off the album, “Black Ice.” The album had only been out for three days, so many of these songs were very fresh to the crowd, but “Missing Out” and “Hang In There” had the crowd singing along since they were released earlier in March and April as singles. She then transitioned into “To Love A Boy,” leaving the crowd on edge as she giggled through finding her starting note! When she got through a few bars of the song the crowd started blaring when they realized what song she was playing! Hawke “ended” the show with the final song off her album, which is also the name of the album, “Chaos Angel.” She made a quick joke about an encore before playing the last song, so she left the crowd cheering for her to come back out! I didn’t think the crowd could have gotten louder when she left the stage, but I was proven wrong when she came back on stage for her encore! She played “Luna Moth” and finished out the show with “Thérèse," singing the last part of the song with the crowd. As she closed out the night with a huge thank you to Atlanta, the crowd jumped to their feet, clapping and cheering for her!
Maya Hawke put on a beautiful and intimate show inside the nearly 100 year old theatre, letting her lyrics paint an alluring picture for each song. Her songs flow and ebb just like the ocean she sings about in songs like “To Love A Boy.” Her voice translates heavenly to live performance. While her music doesn’t call for head-banging or jumping around, she bewitches the crowd to sway much like she does even when it was a fully seated show. She moved from the mic on to the stage floor to interacting with the members of her band! Hawke has an incredible stage presence that matches her whimsical sound. She wore a beautiful red dress spotted with white polka dots and a red sweater over top. It was a fitting dress for her to wear on stage with its poufy skirt that twirled around with her on stage. Alongside her stunning voice and ethereal stage presence, she debuted her charming personality by cracking some jokes throughout the show and making eye contact and smiling at fans all throughout the crowd. She drew me in with the debut of her second album, Moss, in 2022 and I am so glad that I finally got to see her perform live!
While these were one-off shows to celebrate the release of her new album, many hope that she will take it back on the road after finishing up filming the final season of Stranger Things! As a fan of her acting AND her music, I am very excited to see all that she does in the future, on and off stage! But in the meantime, I’ll be checking out her website to purchase some merch to remember my first time seeing her perform!
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