Maisie Peters, Grace Enger

The Van Buren, Phoenix, AZ

September 28, 2023

Review and Gallery By: Hannah Kelly

The show started with Grace Enger, a singer / songwriter originally from New Jersey. She took the stage alone with just an acoustic guitar in hand. She shared a few nervous giggles with the crowd as she struggled with plugging her guitar in. After finally getting the guitar ready to play, she started her set with her song “Bad Guy.” I was amazed by both her vocal chops and the tone of her voice. She played through the rest of her set, stopping to make Taylor Swift references and playing a cover of “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” along the way. For an all acoustic set, she still had lost of energy and kept the crowd entertained the entire time.

Maisie Peter, hailing from the UK, was next and the headliner of the evening. I had checked her Instagram on my way to the show only to find out that something happened with the truck carrying her gear to Arizona and nothing had made it there in time for the show. No instruments, backdrops, or stage clothes…nothing. They even had buy new instruments for the entire band from local stores in order to do the show that night.

She walked out on stage in a skirt, tank top, zip up hoodie and a pair of sneakers, sat down on a stool and played her entire set from there. To some this may have been a bummer, but Maisie took it as an opportunity to give the crowd in Phoenix something different. The setlist she played this night was completely different from every other night of the tour. It was consisted mostly of songs she rarely plays and unreleased tracks. She also spent a lot of time talking to the crowd, giving insight on how songs were written and cracking lots of jokes. Although the situation was unfortunate, it made for completely unique and one in a lifetime show for the crowd in Phoenix.

One reoccurring joke throughout the set was about the name of the tour, which is The Good Witch Comes to America Tour. However, Maisie referred to this show as The Good Witch Comes to America Without Her Truck many times throughout the night. She started the set with songs “Body Better,” “Love Him I Don’t,” “Wendy,” and “Talking To Strangers.” She introduced the fifth song of the set, “Cate’s Brother,” by saying “There’s something I love doing and I think we should do more…and that’s lying. I wrote this some about Cate’s brother and I don’t think Cate’s brother’s girlfriend was too pleased.”

She played through songs “Volcano” and “Two Weeks Ago” before introducing the next song “Therapy” by saying “This song is actually ironically names because I’ve never been once, Therapy.” She then went into an unreleased song, which she asked the crowd not to film because she wanted it to be a special moment between her and the crowd that night. To respect her privacy, I’ll be keeping the name of the new track a secret as well, just know it was a great and campy track.

She then took time introduce her band. After introducing her drummer, the crowd screamed because he’s a handsome guy. She then said to the crowd “Ladies, have some self-respect. Speaking of having no self-respect, this some is called ‘Want You Back.’ I didn’t have any self-respect back them, but I do have it now.”

She played through songs ” Architecture,” “Glowing Review,” “Psycho,” (which she wrote with Ed Sheeran) and “Villain.” Before she played through the last few songs of her set she made sure to tell the crowd that she didn’t have her in ear monitors for the show and could actually hear the crowd singing back for once and she loved the way it sounded. She also exclaimed to the crowd “You know what I don’t miss? The truck!” She then played her final three songs “John Hughes Movie,” “There It Goes,” and “Lost The Breakup.”

Overall I was really impressed with her voice and ability to turn an unfortunate situation into a super fun and unique show. It was definitely a special one that I’ll always remember!