Taping Recap: Maggie Rogers - Austin City Limits

Maggie Rogers returned to the Austin City Limits stage for her second taping Thursday night, sporting her [now] signature sheer skirt and black leotard, the perfect ensemble for a night of impassioned dancing. And that’s exactly what she came onstage doing – dancing. Opening the hour with “It Was Coming All Along,” from her third and latest album Don’t Forget Me, the singer-songwriter’s contagious energy had the audience on their feet, dancing along throughout most of the highly anticipated performance.

Rogers performed three more songs from Don’t Forget Me, following the album’s track list. Touted as a road trip album written from the perspective of someone leaving home for the first time, hearing the tracks in the album order was transcendent. Rogers broke up the journey through Don’t Forget Me with favorites “Want Want” and “Be Cool” from Surrender, as well as “Dog Years,” and hit single “Love You For a Long Time.” As Rogers switched from dancing with abandon to wielding an acoustic guitar for some songs, fans took the opportunity between songs to yell, “I love you Maggie,” to which she replied warmly to the intimate studio audience, “I love you too.”

After “If Now Was Then,” the band left the stage as Maggie took to the piano for a stripped down and vulnerable performance of “I Still Do.” Overwhelmed by the emotion of the obviously very personal song, Rogers took a beat at the back of the stage to breathe deeply as her band returned to the stage, before asking the audience for three minutes to regroup backstage. Returning to an adoring crowd lifting her up with applause, Rogers was brought back to high spirits as she continued with selections from Surrender: “Anywhere With You,” and “That’s Where I Am.”

Closing out the night with “All the Same” and “Don’t Forget Me,” Rogers and her talented band took the studio audience through what felt like the nostalgic hills and valleys of a long lost relationship, but through the matured perspective of someone with clear eyes and a full tank of gas. Catch Maggie Roger’s Season 50 episode later this year on PBS, in celebration of 50 years of Austin City Limits.