Lizzy McAlpine Closes Out The “Older” Era With Intimate Shows
Late in the afternoon on December 1st, Lizzy McAlpine posted a tease to her website alluding to one last surprise after a full week of surprises, such as merch, vinyl, the official music video she originally scrapped for lead single “Older” and the release of “Pushing It Down and Praying (Live from AFAS, Amsterdam).” Fans scrambled for ideas of what possibly could be left for her to do, and the next day she announced two intimate shows in Los Angeles and New York City to close the Older era, the same way it started.
Lizzy began this era in April of 2024 with an album release event called the Older Gallery where album artwork was on display, memorabilia was handed out, food was catered and she performed a stripped-down set with two of her band members she made the album with Taylor Mackall and Mason Stoops.
To bring it all full circle, she decided that’s exactly how she wanted to end the era that has stretched over a year and a half including the release of her third studio album Older, a deluxe version Older (And Wiser), and THE OLDER TOUR visiting North America and Europe.
I had the privilege of being in attendance to her “Always, Forever” show at Cherry Lane Theatre in New York City on December 15th, and it was all one could hope for. The beauty of Lizzy’s music, especially in this era, is the rawness and lyricism. She created this album originally with other collaborators until she ended up finding her band, who then redid the songs in a more live and authentic way to have the feeling of life she was looking for. With just piano and two guitars being played between the three artists on stage, that beauty and the real root of the era was so perfectly on display.
They began with second single of the album’s rollout “I Guess” into “Movie Star”. The minimalistic arrangement of her set made space for real presence and allowed everyone in the room to reflect on everything that has happened within this era. Every audience member sat nearly silent just letting the performance wash over them.
Not only did she sing some of Older’s bests, like “Staying” or “Vortex,” she also pulled from her deluxe album, singing some songs for the first time since the very beginning of her tour (“Force of Nature”) and some for the very first time ever (“Method Acting.”) Moving between playing piano, guitar or nothing at all, her effortless vocals filled the room, one so silent you could hear every sniffle.
Of the most memorable moments during the show was her singing title track “Older.” She explained how special the song is before beginning, saying “This song started everything, really, for this album. It was the final song that we wrote for the album and everything just clicked into place after we wrote this song.”
As seen in her documentary “Older: The Making Of The Album” that captured the process of re-doing the album, the moment she referred to at the show can be watched back, and it’s fascinating. Late after a session where songs she had planned just did not fit with the album to her anymore, “Older” was created in 30 minutes. Her bandmates even convinced her that it needed to be the album title after she previously had it set to be called “Vortex.” The devastating chords followed after she told the stories and she sang, even choking up towards the end feeling just as moved as everyone watching.
After “Older,” she boldly performed two brand new unreleased tracks “Over Country” and “Tether,” which have had fans over the moon. Though not planning to be released any time soon (an album takes a long time to perfect), she decided it would be fun to tease what she’s been working towards in a place where the songs would be welcomed with open arms. One written while she was in New York City making her Broadway debut in Floyd Collins and the other just about two weeks ago, the songs dive into freedom and love, while displaying what we can hope to be the sound we can expect of her highly anticipated fourth album.
After nearly an hour and a half of beautiful recontextualized arrangements of songs from this entire era of her career, she finished with a fan favorite “Spring Into Summer.” “Summer is falling / it’s a distant dream / if I turn around / you’re running back to me” she sang, and the crowd collectively erupted into joyous “da-da-da’s.” A sentimental way to close out what has been such a pivotal era of her life, which she considers to be “the foundation of everything that’s to come.”
