Maggie Rogers Headlines Nashville Arena for Second Time, Top Moments from 'Don't Forget Me Tour'

Indie star Maggie Rogers performed her second headlining arena show in Nashville on Saturday night. And she'll certainly be back for more — Music City sent a message to Rogers: “We'll love you for a long time.”

Rogers stopped at Bridgestone Arena on October 12 as part of the second leg of her “Don't Forget Me Tour”, her first headlining arena tour, which began on October 9 in Texas. The shows follow the April release of “Don’t Forget Me,” Rogers’ third studio album.

Rogers delivered a sparkling show that sparkled with infectious, feel-good energy as she performed her indie, folk and dance-pop songs.

She seemed to feel the music in every fiber of her body and invited her audience to be just as free and present with her during her 90-minute set.

The 30-year-old Maryland native, Harvard and NYU graduate and Grammy Award nominee is best known for the songs “Alaska,” “Light On” and “Love You For A Long Time.” She recently stopped in Tennessee this summer to make her Bonnaroo debut at The Farm in Manchester.

The last time Rogers took the stage at Bridgestone Arena was in 2019, opening for Kacey Musgraves. Five years later, it was time to shine.

After opener Ryan Beatty warmed up the audience, Rogers descended from a platform beneath the stage and dramatically appeared in front of the hungry audience in a long silver tunic.

Rogers shimmered and glowed like the disco ball hanging over the stage's catwalk and began the first song of the night, “That's Where I Am.”

She belted soulfully, sang delicately in her delicate falsetto, sang vocal inflections (à la Chappell Roan), sang and cried while tossing her hair, shaking her hips and strutting up and down the runway. Rogers called upon a combination of Stevie Nicks, Sheryl Crow, Waxahatchee and Sara Bareilles – lyrically rich with correspondingly powerful vocal skills.

She exuded an infectious confidence and positivity, even on sadder songs like “Alaska” and “Fallingwater.” Backed by a six-piece black-clad band, surrounded by lights backstage and on her runway, Rogers danced freely through her show.

Highlights included when Rogers changed the lyrics to “So Sick of Dreaming” to accommodate the audience, swapping out “Knicks” for the Nashville Predators and saying, “By the way, the Preds lost.”

Rogers also covered Roberta Flack's “Killing Me Softly With His Song” and turned on a sweet kiss cam during “Love You for a Long Time.”

“Nashville has always been home to some of my favorite and scariest shows.”

After a break, the arena became dark.

Rogers sat alone at a piano at the end of the catwalk, striking a match and burning incense in the darkness. As she began playing the keys and the incense faded, Rogers turned to the crowd. “I’m always very grateful to be able to play here.”

“The last time I was here was in 2019 and it was the last night of 'Heard It In A Past Life' – that record campaign seemed to last five years,” she said.

“And Kacey Musgraves was kind enough to ask me if I wanted to finish our album cycles together because she was right at the end of 'Golden Hour' – which to this day is just a completely perfect record.”

Rogers remembers standing on stage and being in awe. Headlining a show at Bridgestone now is crazy, she said, asking if anyone in the audience saw her at her Basement East show in 2018.

“Nashville has always been home to some of my favorite and scariest shows because y’all are good at music,” Rogers said. “Playing in front of musicians is so scary.”

She added that she had both the best and worst shows of her life back to back at the Ryman in 2018. “I didn't understand that you had to play at the Ryman and you couldn't just go in there and be like that.”…dance. Because you just can’t, there are pews,” Rogers said with charming humility.

The evening's show had some other Nashville connections – Rogers' bassist Brian Kesley is from Music City and guitarist Shannon Lauren Callihan has worked in Bridgestone operations for eight years, Rogers said onstage.

Rogers plays a song she hadn't thought of in 12 years: “James.”

After speaking to the audience, Rogers read a sign in the crowd. An audience member had written about Rogers' song “James,” a 2014 track that Rogers said she hadn't thought about in 12 years.

And unrehearsed, Rogers sang the dour song of past love and played the piano, a real treat for fans who have been following her for a decade.

Toward the end of the show, Rogers performed an acoustic version of “Alaska,” showing the audience her hit song in a different light, and closed her set with a confetti-filled rendition of “Light On.”

As an encore, the band returned to the stage in Predators jerseys for the final moments of the evening.

Rogers left the crowd with “Don’t Forget Me,” singing “Oh, but Promise Me That When It’s Time to Leave / Don’t Forget Me.”

Don't worry Maggie, Music City won't forget you.

Maggie Rogers Nashville Setlist

• That's where I am

• Drunk

• So Sick of Dreaming (alternative lyrics, “Knicks” changed to “Preds”)

• The murder

• Want Want

• Say it

• I've loved you for a long time

• On and on and on

• In the living room

• Dog years

• Killing Me Softly With His Song (cover by Roberta Flack)

• If this were now, then

• I still do that

• James

• No matter

• Alaska

• Everywhere with you

• Falling water

• Light on

• Encore: Don't forget me

Audrey Gibbs is a music reporter for The Tennessean. You can reach her at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Maggie Rogers to perform her second headlining arena show in Nashville, top moments