Midway through Tate McRae’s sold out Madison Square Garden debut, the singer took a breather from her dance-heavy show, sat down onstage and addressed the crowd.
“To play this venue is one of my biggest dreams in the entire world,” she said emotionally. “I know so many of you have been here for so long — since I was 13 years old. I love you guys more than anything and that’s what makes this such a special show to me.”
But MSG is the self-proclaimed “world’s most famous arena,” and artists often have something special in store. A surprise guest had been hinted on social media in the days leading up to the show, and shortly before McRae took the stage, the crowd roared when it recognized rapper Kid Laroi, the singer’s boyfriend, walking toward his seat in a rear center section.
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But special guests usually are brought out late in the set, and McRae, sporting an army green two-piece outfit, soared through her performance. She’s been on her “Think Later” tour — named for her recent sophomore album — for much of the year and the poise and experience showed: During the opening song, her microphone slipped out of her hand after the line “I’m just at the Ritz with the door locked” and fell to the floor, but without missing a beat, she grabbed it just in time for the following line, “Live now, think later, I do it so well.”
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The 21-year-old Canadian singer and her dancers rocked through the following series of songs — “Hurt My Feelings,” “What’s Your Problem?,” “Feel Like Shit” and “Uh Oh,” the latter complete with its TikTok-popularized choreography. The “Tater Tots” (her fandom’s name) showed up in force, decked out in “I Heart T8” tour T-shirts and custom hockey jerseys — because not only is McRae a serious hockey fan, in Canada it’s practically treasonous not to be one — belting out the lyrics and trying to emulate McRae’s moves.
The pace slowed down for “Calgary,” McRae’s ode to her hometown, as she explained that even though she now lives in Los Angeles and has her “shit together,” as soon as she goes home, she instantly feels “15 again.”
However, the energy perked back up when McRae burst into “Exes,” dancing in the middle of a mock-boxing ring like the song’s video, which channels Christina Aguilera’s 2002 hit “Dirrty,” and finished with a split. Fans may have noticed that Laroi left the seating area during this song.
Leading next into “We’re Not Alike,” a song about a fake friend, McRae called out Jake Shane —influencer and pilates partner to McRae and Glen Powell — in the crowd, who had a mic in his hand as a spotlight zoomed in on him. “Jake, what do you hate more than anything in the world?,” she asked. He roared in reply, “A fake fucking bitch!”
And finally, after that song, McRae said, “I was fooling around today in soundcheck and there was someone backstage…” and then asked the crowd if it was OK if she brought out someone to sing with her. Sure enough, Laroi took the stage and the pair sang his hit “Without You,” noting it was the first time they’d ever sung together onstage.
After the main set, McRae returned for an encore of a new track apparently titled “It’s OK, I’m OK” — elements of which evoked songs from Britney Spears’ 2000 album “Oops !…I Did It Again” — before winding down, of course, with her smash single “Greedy.”
It may have been McRae’s first performance at Madison Square Garden, but judging by Thursday’s show, it certainly won’t be the last.
