On Friday, April 24, indie-rock musician Eliza McLamb played a packed show at Irving Plaza on The Good Story Tour. A Brooklyn local, the 25-year-old singer-songwriter was especially excited for the New York City tour stop because it would mark her first time performing in Manhattan.
Addy & Sex Week
Openers Addy and Sex Week both brought great pre-show energy to the NYC venue. Ada Paige, McLamb’s guitarist, keyboardist, and background vocalist opened the night with the indie-pop band Addy. The acoustic, folksy sound of Addy connected with the Eliza McLamb fans in the crowd immediately.
Brooklyn-based alt-rock duo Sex Week, composed of co-vocalists Pearl Amanda Dickinson and Richard Orofino, opened second. The duo put on a visually-enticing set with Orofino switching between instruments and Dickinson dancing loosely around the stage as she sang.
Eliza McLamb
McLamb has been writing music since she was six years old. Using the art form as a reflective, therapeutic act, her songs contain lyrics about her deepest anxieties, strongest emotions, and personal experiences. At her core, McLamb is an essayist – between writing songs, she runs an incredibly successful Substack with over 36,000 subscribers. She often shares cultural critiques and personal essays on the platform, giving fans a peek inside her brain outside the construct of lyrics.
When COVID-19 hit, Eliza McLamb was in her second year of college at George Washington University. Moving back home to North Carolina during the shutdown, McLamb volunteered through WWOOF to work on farms throughout the summer. Later moving to Los Angeles, she hosted the well-known podcast Binchtopia with her best friend Julia Hava, discussing niche pop-culture phenomenons for all to tune into. During this time, she uploaded her songs onto TikTok for fun, and grew online as a songwriter due to her 2020 trending song, “Porn Star Tits.” Now based in Brooklyn, McLamb has released two albums under Royal Mountain Records, Going Through It (2024) and Good Story (2025).
Walking onto the Irving Plaza stage with a full band, McLamb’s smile was infectious. Kicking off the night with “Better Song,” what started slow and stripped with just a girl and a guitar became a full jam-band ordeal complete with heavy drums, wailing electronic guitar, and even the twang of a banjo thrown in the mix.
Transitioning into “Suffering” by jumping down from the drum platform, a fast-paced classical piano medley filled the room. The song about sadness, suffering, and “life suck[ing] so bad” shifted quickly into a punchy ‘90s-inspired track about loving the pain. Calling it her “favorite thing,” McLamb danced around the stage while strumming the distorted chords.
A natural talent, the musician navigated changing instruments after every song comfortably. Switching between three guitars and a keyboard in record time is no easy feat, but McLamb’s casual stage presence proved that she nailed it every time. There is a satisfying symmetry between folk-pop and indie-rock songs in the setlist. Softer songs easily transition smoothly into louder, emotionally-heavy beats that kept the crowd moving throughout the night.
“I wrote the majority of the record in New York, so it’s surreal to finally be playing it in full here,” the singer-songwriter told the crowd after playing a few songs. “This is my first time playing in Manhattan. When I first moved to New York, I was sleeping on the floor. I was so excited to wake up every day and be in the city, and to fall asleep on the floor. I appreciate you all being here.” McLamb exclaimed mid-sentence that she believed her broker was in the building, laughing that they were added to the guest list.
Eliza McLamb’s love for New York is clear, and the crowd responded back tenfold. Halfway through “Modern Woman,” a song critiquing the sad-girl trope in the music industry, a call and response broke out between the artist and her fans. As Eliza sang “sad girl sings a simple song,” the crowd responded with “all the others sing along,” playing into the criticism of marketing sadness for profit. During “Anything You Want,” a group of boys deep in the crowd climbed onto each other’s shoulders. Waving, making hand-hearts, and singing the lyrics “I’ll do anything you want” loudly back to the singer earned them a laugh from McLamb.
Because she finds encores gratuitous, McLamb decided to play three more songs without a faux-exit. Staying on stage for “Mystic,” and “Getting Free,” the singer-songwriter ended her set by singing the first notes of “New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra. “No, would you imagine?” she questioned, laughing at her own joke, before actually ending the set with “Mythologize Me.”
“I was nervous for this show,” McLamb opened up, “and I prepared myself for every outcome except for it going well.” The show went better than well for Eliza McLamb, leaving the New York crowd engaged in her music throughout the night from start to end.
Eliza McLamb – Irving Plaza – Friday, April 23
Setlist: Better Song, Suffering, Glitter, Like The Boys, California, Strike, Forever, Like That, Water Inside the Fence, Talisman, Mausoleum, Modern Woman, Good Story, Quitting, Girls I Know, Lena Grove, Anything You Want, Ever Year,
Encore: Mystic, Getting Free, Mythologize Me
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