John Maus Setlist

My Whole World’s Coming Apart
Because We Built It
No Title (Molly)
Decide Decide
…And the Rain
Came & Got
Rights for Gays
The Combine
Streetlight
Time to Die
Do Your Best
Disappears
Keep Pushing On
Bennington
I Hate Antichrist
Just Wait Til Next Year
Cop Killer
Pick It Up
Pets

— Encore —
Adorabo
Believer

Tour Dates

Sep 26 – Warsaw – Brooklyn, NY
Sep 28 – Green Room – Minneapolis, MN
Sep 29 – Outset – Chicago, IL
Sep 30 – The Loving Touch – Ferndale, MI
Oct 1 – Danforth Music Hall – Toronto, ON
Oct 3 – Theatre of Living Arts – Philadelphia, PA
Oct 6 – Ottobar – Baltimore, MD
Oct 7 – The Broadberry – Richmond, VA
Oct 8 – The Underground – Charlotte, NC
Oct 9 – Variety Playhouse – Atlanta, GA
Oct 11 – Conduit – Winter Park, FL
Oct 12 – Gramps – Miami, FL
Oct 14 – White Oak Music Hall – Houston, TX
Oct 15 – Empire Control Room & Garage – Austin, TX
Oct 16 – The Echo Lounge & Music Hall – Dallas, TX
Oct 18 – Insideout – Albuquerque, NM
Oct 19 – Walter Studios – Phoenix, AZ
Oct 20 – The Observatory – Santa Ana, CA
Oct 22 – The Belasco – Los Angeles, CA
Oct 23 – The Fillmore – San Francisco, CA
Oct 25 – The Wall at AREA15 – Las Vegas, NV

Finishing up the weekend in style, the Green Room in Minneapolis played host to Minnesota native John Maus, in mid-tour of his newest album.

Planned opener Lex Walton could not perform as planned due to unforeseen circumstances. In her stead, local artist drey dk (full name Drey Darst Kereakos), a singer, songwriter, and self-taught producer appeared at the last minute. The lo-fi indie pop artist has a pair of EP’s, including 2022’s feeling. Arriving on stage as a solo performer, drey dk had a full electronic music track that they sang over the top of and also played keyboards. The second number had a bright keys sound complementing the deeper alto vocals. Given the very short prep time, drey dk had admirable stage presence and didn’t seem thrown at all.

Switching to guitar for the next number, drey dk went down towards the bottom of their vocal range on a slower tempo song and drawing the audience in. A bit of banter started with “surprise!”, before talking about how they had planned on being in the audience until just two hours before the show. Getting back to the music, I liked how they made the fairly large space for one person seem very intimate; the single spotlight set up from the Green Room staff helped strengthen that effect. An unreleased number had a pretty hypnotic guitar riff throughout. Back to keyboards, we were already headed towards the close, with just two more songs left. A quiet and melodic closer was a nice way to finish the opening set. Big props to the Green Room for finding a late replacement who was genre appropriate for the headliner, and bigger props to drey dk for stepping up into the moment.

John Maus arrived in support of his newest album, 2025’s Later Than You Think, which was released just a few days ago. This is Maus’ sixth album in the nearly twenty years he’s been performing (though there is a five year break in the span). His music is described variously as experimental and retro, with a tendency towards older electronic equipment. (Side note: Learning about Maus, I learned about the term hypnagogic pop, that “evokes cultural memory and nostalgia of the past…principally the 1980’s”. Who knew?). Coming out solo with perhaps the smallest equipment set up I’ve ever seen (a laptop and one other piece of electronica in back center stage), Maus launched into the first number. This was backing music with Maus on vocals with a huge variety of effects. And although I had read about his “emotive” performance style, I was a little unprepared for the intensity of his main onstage move, which I can only describe as a very fast and repeated bow (legs staying still). But he also jumped around and punctuated with screams and occasionally beating his chest. This was quite the workout, and Maus was pouring sweat by the third song. He would go back to the laptop to end one song and start up the next and then was back to his moves.

His deep baritone, modified by the reverb and various microphone effects, was still impressive. And to be able to sing while moving the way he did was doubly so. Decide Decide was probably the exemplar of the early going, with Maus singing throughout and ending on an extended ooh that showed real breath control. His inter-song screams were getting infectious with the crowd roaring back. …And the Rain was well known by the audience, who were singing along. Those synth layers were varied upon a central musical theme, but that was all secondary to Maus’ wild performance style. Setting the microphone down, he went into a boxing routine, and I have to say, I’ve never seen anything like this.

I lost track of the number and sequence of songs, as they came so fast and furious. Time to Die was another crowd favorite and a subset were getting progressively pumped up as the evening wore on. Keep Pushing On had the stage lighting at its brightest and Maus somehow seemed to gain intensity. Bennington may have been the biggest hit of the night, at least by the crowd’s reaction. This was some good sequencing from Maus, as the stretch of songs picked up in tempo with some darker and louder backing music. Cop Killer had a clever repeated phrasing of “against the law” that gave some insight into Maus as a songwriter. A very long musical entrance gave him a much needed rest, and the following ballad had Maus standing almost still, but he was quickly back into full beast mode. Putting the mike down again, this time he did a series of burpee exercises, and dear reader, I don’t know how he could then go right back to singing. And then…he simply walked off stage as the music continued for a bit. Back onstage to thunderous applause, Maus had a gothic sounding number in Latin, before closing on a final high energy number. And having never spoken a word to the audience, Maus expressed his gratitude through upraised hands to various sections of the audience before exiting for good for the night.