“I’m so happy to be home, I’m so happy to be in New York!” Maya Hawke says into the microphone while facing a sold-out crowd at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. “Some of you I know, some of you I don’t but you are all my New York City family.” That family includes fans that have been queuing all day to catch Hawke’s homecoming show. Wearing a velvet coat and black mesh dress, she effortlessly glides into ‘Bloomed Into Blue,’ softly singing “As a babbling baby / they blessed her a bastard birth” while the crowd gently sways along.
Hawke’s trance-like voice booms through the venue as she dives into the next few songs. Each one has a similar melody and delivery as they flow into each other. At one point in the night, breaking up her slow ballads, she brings out a special guest. It’s not her father, Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke, who happens to be on the balcony cheering on Stranger Things star with the world’s biggest smile on his face, it’s singer-songwriter Jesse Harris. He begins to strum the opening chords of ‘Generous Heart,’ a Norah Jones-eque tune with the lyrics “I have nothing to say anymore / Love is nothing / I am yours” and has the crowd singing along.
“Is anyone in high school?” asks Hawke, and roughly a fourth of the crowd are cheering and raising their arms. “You guys know it sucks,” she says as she begins to introduce ‘Mermaid Bar’, a song she wrote about her adolescent experience. As the song plays, the pit becomes a sea of glimmering lights with everyone in the front row beaming their flashlights and blowing soap bubbles from the bottles they brought to the gig.
Maya Hawke CREDIT: Sam Keeler
Maya Hawke CREDIT: Sam Keeler
Maya Hawke CREDIT: Sam Keeler
The energy of the night moves forward at a slow pace, but begins to pick up during Hawke’s most well-known tracks, ‘Thérèse’ and ‘Sweet Tooth’. Fans go wild singing both songs word for word, reciting lyrics “Bleeding, bringing in a new year’s mess” and “I’m grateful for everything you put me through / It’s the only reason I’m any good to talk to.”
She walks off stage and the booming chants of her name bring her, her band and Jesse Harris back for an encore. They play Hawke’s first-ever single ‘To Love A Boy’ and the room is screaming the song back to her. To wrap up the homecoming show, a cover of Florida Georgia Line’s ‘Dirt’ is sung after Hawke’s apology for deciding to end on “a song you may hate but we love to play.” Pink furry cowboy hat on, she has a blast on stage tearing it up before heading back into the city she calls home.
Maya Hawke played:
‘Backup Plan’
‘Bloomed Into Blue’
‘Hiatus’
‘Crazy Kid’
‘Luna Moth’
‘Into My Arms’ (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds cover)
‘Generous Heart'(with Jesse Harris)
‘By Myself’
‘Mermaid Bar’
‘Missing Out’
‘I Wanna Be Sedated'(Ramones cover)
‘South Elroy’
‘Thérèse’
‘Freezing’
‘Sweet Tooth’
‘Dirt’ (Florida Georgia Line cover)
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