It was a Thursday night at the Prince Bandroom, and the anticipation for what the night held was electric. Maggie Lindemann was soon to perform her debut show in Melbourne, and first ever show in Australia, and the crowd were ready for anything.
Opening act Bakers Eddy brought their high-energy punk rock tunes to deliver a stunning support performance. Led by Ciarann Babbington on vocals, the boys opened the set with Concertina and 2019 hit Can’t Afford It. Leading into one of our favourite Eddy tracks My Baby’s like Cigarettes, the intensity increased again for Hi-Vis Baby, which resulted in breaking some guitar strings – a typical night for the band, they said. Throwback track T-Shirt proved to be a popular addition to the set, while Leave It To Me had the most crowd participation. The band had a lot of fun on stage, taking the time to thank the crowd and proudly mentioned their 2022 debut album Love Boredom Bicycles (which we can’t recommend enough). Finishing their set with … 21 and Sober, Bakers Eddy proved to be a popular choice and got the crowd ready for the main act ahead.
Performing as part of her SUCKERPUNCH World Tour, Maggie Lindemann arrived in Australia to perform three special intimate shows; bringing her edgy and rebellious pop melodies to Melbourne for one night only. As her band joined her onstage, they launched into the opening two tracks from her latest album with intro / welcome in and take me nowhere setting the scene, much to the delight of the all ages crowd. It took no time at all before we began to explore her catalogue from debut album Paranoia, asking the crowd to ‘go crazy with [her]’ for Scissorhands before rolling out some of her latest pop-punk anthems with self sabotage and hear me out. Jumping between her Paranoia hits and performing SUCKERPUNCH in its entirety, Maggie asked the crowd to ‘sing this one super loud’ for crowd-favourite Knife Under My Pillow.
The crowd were all that you could ask for as an artist; hanging on to every word and singing every lyric alongside Maggie. As an audience member screams out, ‘Slay!’, the band continued with break me! and invited a crowd-wide sing-a-long for phases. Bringing alt-rock vibes from the early 2000s, we appreciated how amazing the live band were, particularly during i’m so lonely with you and loner; both tracks showing her vulnerable and emotional side. Taking time to get to know the crowd, Maggie ensured we were all having the time of our lives throughout the set asking, ‘Is everybody having fun? Does everyone want to keep having fun?’ While cages and girl next door continued to amp us up, slow song we never even dated brought us back to Earth with her impressive vocal range and raw power.
It’s easy to see why Maggie is having her moment and why there is so much critical acclaim circling her latest releases – there is no weak song in the setlist or the album. Every song is someone’s favourite, and the all ages crowd showed up and managed to show their love for the artist both during and in-between each song. It was hard to imagine things could get better than this – and yet it did, with novocaine going absolutely wild. From the amazing guitar intro of It’s Not Your Fault to the crowd belting out the lyrics for you’re not special, everything continued to build to our highlight of the night with casualty of your dreams.
Maggie closed out the set with her feature track how could you do this to me? asking the audience to sing really loud for the parts usually reserved for Kellin Quinn of Sleeping with Sirens fame. Ending on some of her most upbeat and popular tracks with Crash and Burn and she knows it, the performance was so incredible that no one in the crowd asked for or expected an encore. Maggie gave her all in Melbourne, and we hope that her debut Australia shows are not her last – we hope to see her again real soon.