The last time Maude Latour played a live show she only sold 47 tickets. That show happened during the narrow window of time in early 2020 before the coronavirus pandemic put a stop to live music for over a year. But in the time that’s passed, Latour — with her effervescent relatability, unique voice that often draws comparisons to Lorde,and lyrics that tackle friendship, heartbreak, and growing up through a distinctly philosophical lens — has continued to grow as an artist. She has now amassed over a million monthly listeners on Spotify and just released her second studio EP, ‘Strangers Forever’,on November 1st. Now, Latour is embarking on a series of headlining shows in major cities across the United States. A testament to just how much Latour’s fanbase has grown in the past two years, those shows all sold out within minutes.
On Sunday night, Latour played the first of these live shows at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn, New York. After opener Mamadou concluded his set, Latour took the stage with ‘Furniture.’ Latour’s vibrancy and raw authenticity were palpable from the start, and the audience could feel just how genuinely excited she was to be there. The 22-year-old continued her set with fan-favorite ‘Walk Backwards,’ an upbeat bop that both sonically and lyrically captures the joy of friendship, with lines like “I guess I’ll never understand the line between our love and romance.” Then Latour reached back to her first EP ‘Starsick’ with ‘Plans,’ and ‘Starsick,’ before treating the crowd to not one but two unreleased songs. The second, simultaneously a love letter to her best friend Lola and a musing on big issues like climate change is sure to be a hit when released.
Approaching the halfway mark of the evening, Latour performed ‘Superfruit,’ another song from ‘Starsick’ that brilliantly pivots back and forth between the seemingly mundane (“Watch you drink your orange juice, you’re as good as superfruit”) and the existential (“Have I told you that I’m really fuckin’ scared to die?”) and is a prime example of how her philosophy major at Columbia seeps into her music. ‘Lovesick,’ was next, a more subdued song that marvels at the improbability and beauty of connection, even if short-lived: “Isn’t it amazing that people connect for a minute or two?”
Capitalizing on this slower moment, Latour paused for a minute of mindfulness with the crowd, guiding them through three deep breaths and encouraging them to take time to appreciate silence and solitude. The native New Yorker kicked off the back half of her set with ‘Runner’s High,’ then sang ‘Strangers Forever’ and ‘Shoot and Run’ before closing out the night with ‘Block Your Number.’ But the crowd was antsy for an encore, and they spontaneously broke out into a rendition of ‘One More Weekend’ in near-perfect unison to lure Latour back to the stage. Right on cue, Latour reemerged.
‘One More Weekend,’ with lyrics like “I got a crush on the shape of your name in my phone,” is the young artist’s emotive storytelling at its best, and her fans nearly drowned out the singer as they sang the words along with her. Latour, with her warmth and clear depth of feeling, has a knack for making her fans feel like close friends. As she sang “maybe I’m not so alone…or maybe we’re alone together,” the singer reached out into the crowd, genuine gratitude for her fans and for this evening of connection radiating from her face.
Maude Latour is just at the start of her career, and she’ll embark on her first full-length headlining tour across the U.S. next spring. But if Sunday night’s show is any indication, there’s no doubt that Latour’s star will continue to rise, and her fans will be right there with her every step of the way.
Written by: Emily Thompson
GEM Magazine 