mxmtoon @ Roadrunner 4/2
Photography by: Holly Gustavsen
Review by: Isabelle Ireland
“Waddup Boston!” said the lovely Maia also known as mxmtoon in a fake accent as she walked on stage at Roadrunner this past Wednesday. Mxmtoon ran on stage in a black oversized tee with smiley face cut outs on both sides, black silk pants, tall red socks and no shoes for the Boston show of her tour for her new album, “Liminal Space.”She immediately went into her first song as the stage had a closed white door and white window outlines covering the back wall. As she was taking in the Boston crowd, sad music played peacefully until crazy, loud drums amped up and the door was glowing with a red outline.
After the first high energy song, she picked up her ukelele and performed her hit song “Prom Dress.” The crowd was insane and she was able to play and dance and sing all at once. The biggest thing about this show was the fact that she was really able to move your emotions up and down and get the crowd to dance with her. It is very rare in my experience that people actually jump and sway but at her concert, she was able to get the crowd moving with ease, especially when she played “Mona Lisa” later in the set.
“It’s fun doing live because there are so many times I play songs and I wonder what I can make different and prom dress I can’t touch but there’s another one that could’ve used more edge and it’s ‘seasonal depression.’” said mxmtoon while gearing her fans up for another hit song. What was special about this one is that her dedicated fans made a “fan project” for her where they passed out hundreds of tiny blue squares with instructions to hold them up with a flashlight when she sings a specific line. What was funny about this was that mxmtoon took a normally sad song and amped it up with a quicker pace and more instruments so as she was jumping and dancing she saw her sweet fans light up the room blue for her.
She thanked everyone, introduced her band in a very theatrical way which was a huge theme for her. She went right into another song after opening the white door to a screen that changed throughout the night depending on the vibe of the song. Mxmtoon mentions often how cringy and theatre kid she is so for her performance to be so rooted in theatrics is very on brand and made the performance truly feel like a show. Whether it was turning the lights on to the drum beats, changing the door screen or what was in the windows behind her. “They were all songs I wanted to sing on stage with people and I’m so proud of my live show more than ever.” It is clear she put so much thought into it. The album is about growing and changing whether it is with your sexuality or relationships within your family changing and really finding yourself when so much is moving around you.
Mxmtoon mentions often how cringy and theatre kid she is so for her performance to be so rooted in theatrics is very on brand and made the performance truly feel like a show. Whether it was turning the lights on to the drum beats, changing the door screen or what was in the windows behind her. “They were all songs I wanted to sing on stage with people and I’m so proud of my live show more than ever.” It is clear she put so much thought into it. The album is about growing and changing whether it is with your sexuality or relationships within your family changing and really finding yourself when so much is moving around you.
As mxmtoon caught her breath from going all out on stage, she played a song that she said defined the album, “i hate texas.” After, she sang “rain” and I was mesmerized. Her voice is so hearty and soft, she has so much range and more talent in her pinky finger than most popular artists today. During “rain,” her screens all had rain and dark colors but for the ending, they switched up the original song to add more drums and base and the backgrounds flashing with the lights to create a storm effect which ended abruptly as she went into her next song.
After some more songs and a water break, her background became a series of old home videos and the door opened to reveal a sort of cartoonish bedroom as she began to sing a song she wrote about her mother. After that song from the recent album, “VHS,” her band left and she picked up a ukulele. Before singing an old but popular song, “cliche,” she explained that it was created because she had a situationship when she was 14… on a Minecraft server. She then asked the crowd who was gay, and then who was a supportive boyfriend which made the crowd holler. Her ability to be humorous while also singing such emotional songs was incredible and her ability to connect with her fans was even more magical.
Mxmtoon is an incredible storyteller. She told us her entire coming out story within three minutes explaining how her mom asked why she was so stressed in highschool. She answered with “because i’m bi” and her mom responded with “OK” and Maia followed with, “also, the PSATs are coming up” and her mom freaked out. An amazing story of how “feelings are fatal” came to be when she went on to sing solo on her ukelele. Some more home videos came on the screen soon after while her band joined her on stage once again for “number one boy” which made me sob in the crowd. Immediately after singing a heart wrenching song, she started singing a hit single “Mona Lisa” where she got the crowd to synchronously jump and sway to the beat of the song. If you have not heard this one, I highly recommend adding it to your playlist.
“Happy songs don’t come to me easy because I’m a sad gay person, turns out I have a lot of anger. I’m pissed off and I wrote a song about it but it’s just a little pissed off,” said mxmtoon before grunting aggressively, noting how awkward that was and playing an incredible female rage song. The emotional roller coaster of her set list is something I could never experience again because after screaming, she played “fever dream” after leading a short meditation. She went on to play two final songs and her and her band took a great bow together to close out the show.
Overall, mxmtoon is ready to be back in the music game and I cannot wait to see where she goes. She had so many hits right before covid and now that her new album is out with such a diverse collection of songs, I cannot wait for more people to discover her talent. Her concert has made it into my top five and her album will certainly be on repeat this spring.