“Front of the Line” is a recurring series where GBH News' Haley Lerner explores fan culture and talks to the people who show up first in line to see their favorite musicians.
Maggie Rogers kicked off the U.S. leg of “The Feral Joy Tour” Thursday in Boston at Roadrunner. It’s the first of her sold out three-day run at the venue — and a homecoming of sorts for the indie-folk-pop artist.
Rogers graduated from Harvard Divinity School in May 2022 with a Master of Religion and Public Life. She worked on her thesis, “Surrender: Cultural Consciousness, the Spirituality of Public Gatherings & the Ethics of Power in Pop Culture,” at the same time as she completed her most recent album, Surrender.
Rogers, whose music blends folk, dance, pop and alternative, was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 2019.
Before performing “Honey,” she remarked that she turned it in as a midterm exam while at Harvard.
“The entire time I was in the pandemic, all I could think about was this,” Rogers said. “And then concerts weren’t really back yet so I just came to Boston to think more about what it meant to do concerts. And I’ve been thinking about this show for three years basically. And it just means the absolute world so thank you.”
Rogers started the show by wailing “Overdrive,” the opener of Surrender, dressed in a sheer white dress and a shaggy fur jacket. She played nearly the entirety of the album, along with songs from her previous records — “Alaska,” “Back in my Body,” “Light On” and “Fallingwater.” She dedicated one single, “Love You For a Long Time” as a “love song for Boston.”
The reaction to those crowd favorites matched the enthusiasm before the show started. Doors opened at 7 p.m., but the most loyal of fans showed up several hours earlier in an attempt to obtain the coveted “barricade,” alternatively known as front row.
Josh Sanders, from Tewksbury, was the first in line. He showed up at 3 p.m to secure his spot at the front of the general admission pit.
“I used to work at Whole Foods, they used to play Maggie Rogers all the time, so I already knew some songs, so when I heard the newest album I was like, ‘Oh, that’s really good,”’ he said. “And then I listened to the first album and I was like, ‘OK, I've got to go.’”
Northeastern University student Nadia Boudoukara was second in line. “I always come to concerts early, I’m short, so if I’m not in the front I don’t have a good time,” she said. “But it’s also fun to be super close to the artist.”
Boudoukara is a loyal fan of the opening act, Del Water Gap, but a newfound fan of Rogers. She was most excited to see the two perform a song they collaborated on together, “New Song.”
Samuel Holden Jaffe, known as Del Water Gap, has known Rogers since they went to summer camp together as kids in Maine. Then, they both went to NYU and formed a band, Del Water Gap, which eventually became Jaffe’s solo project.
“Holden and I were in Del Water Gap when we were 18 and before I stormed off in an artistic fit of grandiosity, which turned out to turn out pretty well,” Rogers said before the pair performed “New Song.” “This is the last song we wrote together back then and we played it one time for an end of year talent show our freshman year of college. And then we played it one other time at the Sinclair. Was anyone there?”
Boudoukara was one of the fans at the Cambridge show in October 2021.
Jordan Hurley was the fourth in line — she showed up around 4 p.m. A longtime fan of Rogers, she had tickets to both the Thursday and Saturday show at Roadrunner.
Hurley, who hails from Billerica but lives in Boston, wanted to get as close as possible to Rogers — she has a YouTube page where she likes to post concert videos. “I like no distractions, just me and the artist right in front of me.”
Lucia Johnson and Ava Lynch met while waiting on line and became fast friends “thanks to Maggie.” Both have been fans of Rogers for four years and unknowingly attended the same show of hers at the Wang Theatre in 2019.
“She’s one of my number ones,” said Lynch, from Worcester. “I’ve just connected to her music, so just hearing her and experiencing this album live is a huge opportunity and to come and see it with no one else in front of you.”
“Maggie’s been kind of like a North Star,” Johnson, an Emerson College student, said. “Her music has guided me through a lot of transitions in my life and I knew I needed to be up as close as possible, embracing this music and feeling it in my bones.”
Jayce Ross said “Shatter,” a song off of Rogers’ latest album, has been her “anthem” as she’s turned 20 and transferred to Boston University. A classmate surprised her with tickets to the concert two weeks ago.
“We love her just so much, we’ve been standing here talking about how I’m going to cry,” she said.
Annie Peak and Maddie Weber, both fans of Rogers for years, drove up from Cape Cod to get on line early for the concert. “Go hard or go home,” Peak said.
Scout Painter, a student at Wellesley College, said Rogers was her “number-one bucket list concert” and that getting to attend is “such a dream.”
“There’s something about the way that this tour is called ‘Feral Joy’ — just like that kind of good energy, that want to sing along, and the way she produces her own music,” Painter said. “I’m really jazzed.”
