British singer-songwriter Matt Maltese brought night eight of his latest tour to Brooklyn’s own Warsaw for an unforgettable night of music, musings, and celebration.
Beginning his musical career in 2015 with the release of “Even If It’s A Lie,”, Maltese has since developed a decade-long archive of countless singles, a handful of EPs, and six full-length albums– the most recent being Hers, an eleven track release introduced this past May.
Just on the curtails of the official announcement for Hers’ release was the extensive list of Maltese’s 46 stop 2025 tour, Tour For You My Whole Life, the slew of dates bringing his music from Nashville to Montreal, Denver to Berlin– and between it all, an evening in Brooklyn’s own Warsaw on September 29.
With a discography rich in both wonderfully poetic and steadily honest reflections on how the most potent parts of life, love, and heartbreak can bring someone to what feels like madness, Maltese has earned a loving reputation as a capital “Y” Yearner within his fanbase– a title he has clearly taken in stride, if his lyrics (“Thinking of you each night, just like I was born to / I should get a PhD in yearning all the time”) and his tour merchandise (among records, t-shirts, and stickers was a forest green hoodie with an emblem for “Yearning University, School of Matt Maltese” emblazoned across the front) were anything to go by.
Despite not being the originally intended venue for his New York City date, which was initially the Brooklyn Paramount on October 4, Warsaw’s grandiose yet intimate interior fit the bill for Maltese’s tone perfectly. An ornately and lovingly decorated interior with standing room for audience members to mingle, sing, and sway, the venue was alight with warmed enthusiasm by the time Cornelia Murr took the stage to open the evening.
A frequent collaborator and fellow creator of wonderfully emotive and tender work, Murr’s introductory act for Tour For You My Whole Life’s initial 30-odd dates made perfect sense. With a voice that evoked the effortless grace of the transatlantic accent of 1930s film and a tonality that shared the same honey-warmth as Sleeping Beauty (if Aurora had picked up the keyboard and a saxophone after awakening instead), Murr’s set was a stunning display of skill and pure musicality that brought the room together in a communal sense of wondrous awe.
With Warsaw now fully warmed up for another hour and then some of swaying and singing, Maltese took the stage with the on-page paradoxical “Always Some MF,” a track that bemoans the attention of other men Maltese’s partner draws while simultaneously acknowledging that perhaps the chivalrous stereotype of going “down with a fight” for the affection of you love is excessive to some stunningly dreamy instrumentation… The crowd was aglow as they lamented alongside Maltese with harmonies of their own.
As he introduced “Curl Up & Die,” a track originating from a random man’s pointed remark to him on public transportation some years ago, Maltese found himself pausing to translate his English colloquialisms to the American vernacular, joking that the term “carriage” in reference to a compartment of the “tube” sounded rather ancient. When not actively performing, his showmanship was on constant display– small jokes cracked and explanations shared in a way that made the moments in between feel like less of a lull and more of a bridge spanning one track to the next effortlessly.
Among the litany of small moments that inspired a deep sense of appreciation and respect for Maltese’s live performance was his flawless execution of the conclusion to “Nightclub Love”- the recorded version distorts and warps downwards to its eventual near-unrecognizable end, a feeling that he bafflingly accomplished live through consistent modulations downward that remained perfectly in key each time despite offering the impression of distortion to the ears.
It would also be remiss of me to not mention the small pause and hand raise Maltese does just before the initial drop into a personal favorite, “Madhouse.” After seeing the track performed live during his evening at Irving Plaza in March of 2024, I had remained hopeful that the tiny moment would return– and to my delight, it had!
Bringing Murr back on stage for “Art House Cinema” and “Pined For You My Whole Life,” the glow of the room couldn’t simply be attributed to the hazy warm hues of the stage lights– there was a reciprocal sense of musical elation exchanged not only between the musicians on stage but extending to and being joyously returned by the audience.
“Happy Birthday” was a glowing example of this unspoken vibrancy. Following the recently established tradition of bringing an audience member who was celebrating a birthday of their own upon stage for an artist-and-crowd serenade, Maltese and his band bestowed the lucky fan with a birthday hat and a tiny cupcake while the crowd sang along, one person yelling out “You look gorgeous!” to collective cheers.
Maltese “concluded” the evening with “Anytime, Anyplace, Anyhow…” before returning to the crowd’s cheers for “One more song!” for not one, but two truly final songs, the former being a beautifully stripped back rendition of “Cure for Happiness” that featured Maltese and his keyboard alone upon the stage, and the latter summoning his band back upon the stage for the wonderfully rounding “Everyone Adores You (at least I do).”
While the house lights had long since returned and the stage had begun its slow yet steady process of deconstruction, the communal adoration was still alight in the air as friends, families, and couples posed for pictures or twirled each other around the Warsaw’s floor. While Maltese’s tour is slated to carry him throughout countries and across seas through the conclusion of this year, the memories of his performance in Brooklyn are sure to stay with and be cherished by the audience members for their whole lives.
Cornelia Murr | September 29, 2025 | Warsaw
Matt Maltese | September 29, 2025 | Warsaw
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