WRITTEN BY RAQUEL RUIZ
✮ ⋆ ˚｡𖦹 ⋆｡°✩
Photo by @yondoby
He’s been called the “white Steve Lacy,” and people often describe his music as being for people in the “talking stage” of a relationship. After seeing him live twice, I’d argue that Malcolm Todd offers more than the complaints people have made.His music isn’t just for people dealing with breakups; if you give his albums a chance, they could be the perfect addition to your playlists. If you love romantic songs and indie artists, Malcolm Todd is right up your alley.
This isn’t my first rodeo with Todd; he headlined UMass Amherst’s Spring Concert, and as a student, I secured a seat for $50. UMass students were the first to see him perform “I Saw Your Face” live since it was released three days before he came to the Mullins Center. His concert presence is undeniable, and he really knows how to connect and engage the audience. Once Do That Again was released on June 5, I knew his eventual tour announcement would be a hit, and it was. Todd’s Do That Again North America Tour sold out in minutes and he recently announced his world tour dates.
While the Nor’easter started the day of his concert, thousands of fans, including me, braved the weather in a line wrapped around MGM Fenway for an hour or more to see Todd on a Saturday night. As I waited in line, I asked people around me if they had a dream surprise song they wanted him to sing; various answers included “Intercourse”, “Hot In NY”, “Florence”, and my personal vote, “Nemo.” “Nemo” always leaves me in tears, and I was prepared to cry through his entire setlist. Somehow I kept my tears at bay and only partially lost my voice while screaming every lyric. Everyone stayed on theme with lots of red, matching the album color of Do That Again, plus jean skirts and tops with lyrics from his albums stitched on. I decided to risk waiting in a 40-minute merch line because I need proof for my future children that their mom saw Malcolm Todd not once, but twice live. While waiting in the merch line, I interviewed a few people. Special thanks to Vivian, Liam, and Louisa, who let me interview them.
LIFE ON JUPITER: Why are you here to see Malcolm Todd?
Answers from fans in line:
“Because I really like his music, I’ve been listening to him for a long time, and he helps me study. He’s also very sexy.”
“I really like his music; it’s super fun. Anytime I’m walking, it’s Malcolm Todd half the time.”
“I saw him earlier this year, and it was really good.”
How has he impacted your music taste?
“I’ve gotten into some alternative music because of him.”
“I’ve been sticking to indie music for the past few years, so that’s how I started listening to him.”
“I first heard him through a friend, specifically “Roommates”, and it sparked my interest in small, niche artists. Bro, he just speaks real, and I mess with that; it resonates with me.”
Promptly at 9 PM, the concert started, and the introduction of each band member felt like those wrestling introductions, with his team high-fiving each member as they took the stage. Even a few were repping New England for his Boston performance, with Miles Tobel on the keys wearing a Harvard shirt and John Sterling on the drums wearing a Boston Bruins shirt. In my opinion, not many male artists’ tours do much on stage other than flashing lights and walking across the stage, but this concert had no budget limit. When he performed at the Mullins Center, it was just a stage with his name in the background, very low-key, but the Do That Again tour is on a higher caliber. The Bleed music video playing in the background as he performed was stellar; he incorporated and referenced a lot of his past visualizers in this concert, which I really appreciated. And yes, during the lyric “Put your hands around my ribcage,” Malcolm did pull his sweater up, and the entire crowd screamed. Shockingly, my section was quiet when he performed his older music except for a few girls in front of me. There were some performative Malcolm Todd fans in my section who definitely claimed to have listened to his albums but only knew “Earrings”, “Roommates”, and “4Me 4Me.” It seemed clear to me that people were willing to drop plenty of money to take a few pictures and record the songs they knew, without giving the rest of the music a chance. Incorporating classic and current films and shows into the visuals playing on the jumbotron behind him was genius. “X’s and O’s” is one of my favorite songs off the Do That Again record, and he sings it using a red corded landline phone as his microphone for a part of it. Scenes with people on the phone, including Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Scream, The Proposal, and Mean Girls, played throughout this number. The most anticipated part to see live was what he was going to say for the personalized phone-call bit, where he leaves a voice message but changes it for every venue and city he’s in.
“Hey baby, it’s me Malcolm. Um, you know I was calling to tell you again that I miss you and I love you and I want you, I want you really bad. You know, if you wanna find me, I’ll be in Boston. I’m with my best friends –”. Malcolm Todd said. Everyone was screaming so loudly, I’ll never know what he said at the end of his call. His discography is versatile, and his use of modern media and colorful background graphics makes his production throughout this tour unique. Even though none of the dream surprise songs fans in line mentioned to me during the wait outside MGM Music Hall, we did get a surprise song: Malcolm brought out his mom to sing “Oh Darling” by The Beatles for his parents’ wedding anniversary, which was special. His mother has some incredible vocal pipes; musical talent definitely runs in the family. As some may know, his sister Audrey Hobert is in the music industry as well; her most popular songs are “Silver Jubilee” and Phoebe.”
“Gun To My Head” and “Goodbye” were both sung while he played the piano, and I got emotional when he said “Goodbye” was his least streamed song. Whenever I play the album, specifically “Goodbye,” it tugs at my heartstrings, and I start crying. “Chest Pain (I Love)” live was amazing; he played a bunch of romantic and platonic scenes in films and shows during the show. Notable mentions from the Chest Pain performance include the Jim and Pam kiss scene from The Office, and the rain argument in The Notebook. The nod to The Notebook appears in his music video for the song and in recreations of multiple scenes from the film. I appreciated the diner first date scene from Good Will Hunting between Minnie Driver and Matt Damon’s characters. The film playing during the scene feels appropriate, since it’s a New England-esque film set in Boston and while he’s in Boston is iconic.
The introduction to Earrings, one of his most popular songs, starts with “Oh shit, I’ve been looking everywhere for these,” Malcolm Todd exclaims as the camera operator zooms in on a pair of earrings. Specifically, the opening matches the performance he delivered on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, where he sings the bridge before the song begins. In addition to the special performance of “Oh Darling” with his mom, the Boston crowd also got the iCarly theme song, which he has sung at previous concerts, even at the Mullins Center, so it wasn’t surprising to me that he would reprise this cover. For the encore of his concert, he wore a customized Patriots jersey with Todd on the back of it during “Leave It All To Me”, “Do That Again”, and the crowd-pleaser and final song “Roommates”, where everyone in the pit as well as the balconies in MGM were jumping up and down. I was disappointed that “Lonely Song” wasn’t on the setlist because I believe that the album — Do That Again as a whole is worth seeing live. I was also shocked that the concert was only a 1-hour, 30-minute setlist; I wanted to hear more songs from his past albums and EPS. I would’ve happily taken any song from his EP Shower Songs. I also quickly noticed the outline of Queen Elizabeth on the jumbotron during his live performance of “4Me 4Me,” which is another reference to his music video where he sings to a photo of Queen Elizabeth. Immersing yourself in a live concert and experiencing it is different from listening to a studio album on your phone or laptop. I’ve been to so many concerts, and I usually record every song, but this second time seeing him live, I didn’t take out my digital camera every time and really appreciated his lyricism and the crowd energy. This performance from Malcolm Todd means so much to me; I wish I’d started listening to him earlier in his career, and I’m excited to see what else comes next. Any future tours he has will definitely be in higher demand, so I’m ready for an insane album rollout in the next few years. I’m already experiencing concert FOMO and keep rewatching the videos that I took. Regardless, it was incredible as expected, and to quote Malcolm’s newest album, I’d do that again in a heartbeat.
