Madilyn Mei Setlist

My Only Sense of Purpose
One Man Circus
A Can of Worms
Poppin Skittles
Velcro
Quarters
To Exist With You
Apple Juice
Never The Muse
Tho I’m A Tortoise
Kleptomaniacrow
At Least I’d Be a Cowboy!
The Milk Carton
Partner in Crime
What’s Going On?!
Intermission (Adieu Until Act 2)

Set Times

XXX
Amsterdam
Bar & Hall

DOORS
6:00PM

AMELIA DAY
7:00PM

MADILYN MEI
7:45PM

PRESENTED BY FIRST AVENUE PRODUCTIONS

Tour Dates

Oct 17 Chicago, IL, US Outset
Oct 18 Columbus, OH, US A&R Music Bar
Oct 19 Ann Arbor, MI, US Blind Pig
Oct 22 Toronto, ON, Canada Velvet Underground
Oct 24 South Burlington, VT, US Higher Ground
Oct 25 Portland, ME, US Portland House of Music
Oct 29 Boston, MA, US Brighton Music Hall
Oct 31 New York (NYC), NY, US The Sultan Room
Nov 1 Philadelphia, PA, US The Foundry Philadelphia
Nov 2 Washington, DC, US The Atlantis
Nov 4 Richmond, VA, US Richmond Music Hall
Nov 5 Carrboro, NC, US Cat’s Cradle
Nov 7 Asheville, NC, US Asheville Music Hall
Nov 8 Atlanta, GA, US The Masquerade
Nov 13 Houston, TX, US House of Blues
Nov 14 Austin, TX, US Parish
Nov 15 Dallas, TX, US House of Blues

When you go to a show, sometimes you know exactly what you are walking into. And sometimes, you get very surprised. It was absolutely the latter as I strolled into Amsterdam Bar and Hall on what I had expected to be a quieter Wednesday night (starting an hour earlier!) headlined by Madilyn Mei. Coming into the bar ahead of doors, the line was already very long, wrapping up a flight and a half of stairs. It was also heavily populated with teens and pre-teens, many of them in costume and make up, similar to Mei’s jester appearance. Is it ok to say I was surprised? Dear reader, I was oh so very surprised. But as the initial shock wore off, it was truly a delight to see so many young fans fervently excited, with many at their first concert (a group of five I briefly spoke with had three at their first concert, and two veterans at their second). If you couldn’t be charmed by this audience, I don’t know what to tell you.

Amelia Day, a Washington state based artist, was the opener. A singer and songwriter, Day has several EPs, including 2023’s wonderfully named Therapist’s Wet Dream. Day, appearing solo with guitar, immediately asked who was excited for the headliner and after the expected cheer, quipped “that sounds like everyone”. Opening with Skipping on the Sidewalk, had Day nearly scatting vocally in that number. She mentioned this was the first appearance opening for Mei, and “I couldn’t be happier with the reception”. Day went into the above named album song, but stumbled slightly, saying “if you know me, this is a popular one; it’s called Therapist’s…you can look up the rest later”. I was impressed how she adapted to the crowd with her banter, but stuck to her Brandi Carlisle like vocals and able to slide genre wise between straight folk rock and Americana.

Releasing a song tomorrow, Margie, was a reversal of the country “she did me bad” narrative. This was a deft performance and I have to applaud Day for knowing how to engage with the crowd in the best possible way. With an audience that was so excited to see performance (clapping along, in pretty perfect time to most songs), Day was clearly touched by that strong and earnest response. Finishing up (and ending exactly thirty minutes in) with perhaps her best known number, Eastward Eden, Amelia Day had likely made some new lifelong fans and deserved each and every one.

Up next was Madilyn Mei (full name Elio Mei). Considering their youth (just 22!), Mei has built quite the following, as evidenced by the crowd. With multiple releases including the excellent 2024 EP The Bard and the newest 2025 full length album A Thousand Songs About It All: Act I, Mei is already earning the prolific tag. On this One Man Circus Tour, Mei came to the stage standing on an additional platform in full jester gear, with a guitarist/keyboardist and some additional music (and occasional backing vocals) behind them throughout. One Man Circus had the crowd singing along louder than Mei at points. This was a great give and take between performer and audience and that was an impressive tightrope to walk. (Side note: a very young fan took the bench spot next to me with dad standing nearby and when they let loose singing this song, my heart nearly burst.)

Mei had the audience in their hands and absolutely knew it. But they also didn’t let that throw them from the performance when there were the inevitable screams during every pause. Poppin Skittles was another number with everyone singing the “da, da, das”. I appreciated the clever lyrics and concepts from Mei’s music and Velcro was a great example of the fear of growing up. Using that platform to either tower above or come off and sit down close the crowd, Mei had a real sense of how to maximize their impact with the audience. And the crowd knew the drill, not falling for the false ending on Quarters, instead being ready to sing along and have flashlights on for the final verse. Getting on ukulele for the first time, the guitarist left the stage for a few songs. Mei also apologized for earlier calling it Minneapolis and rebounded recognizing they were in Saint Paul. (Side note to the visiting artists: You cannot go wrong with the term Twin Cities.)

Going back to the fuller band sound, Mei was first interrupted by some fans who wanted to give them “a cool rock”. A great moment of connection threatened to devolve into madness, but Mei went to my favorite song of theirs, Never the Muse, an excellent song which was as good live as the recording. Kleptomaniacrow gave the audience a chance to give a scream and they were raring to go. Similarly, The Milk Carton got huge applause right from the very first chords and also featured hand puppets from Mei. Just when I thought there couldn’t be any louder of a sing along, in came What’s Going On?!, blowing the doors wide open. With a perfect closer, Intermission (Adieu Until Act II), Madilyn Mei had crushed this performance and made a lasting concert experience for a huge number of fans.