While in the middle of her tour with indie pop band AJR, Mxmtoon stopped at Emo’s in Austin for a headlining show with opener Nep.
Kicking off the show was opener, Nep. She told the audience she was nervous to perform that night, but she came out with her acoustic guitar and put on such a wonderful, fun, and interactive set. She performed songs from her recent EP, Nep’s Storybook, which was released on June 9th, 2024. Some songs she performed from it were, “Milk Town/Mr. Carter,” “Cottontail,” “Lovelace”, “A Big Brown Dog Named Bagel”, and “Pup”. She shared tons of laughs and jokes with the crowd, and even made the crowd bark during “Pup.”
When performing her 2023 single “Fender”, she told the crowd that it was a song she had written about her and 5 Seconds of Summer bassist, Calum Hood, which got a loud reaction from the crowd. After her set, she went to meet some fans at her merch booth.
Next up was Maia, also known by her stage name, Mxmtoon. Starting the show off with her song “fever dream”. Followed by “frown”. She then talked about her 2022 Austin show at Scoot Inn which was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She asked the crowd if there was anyone who was supposed to go to the canceled show and a large portion of the crowd began to scream implying so. She thanked those who yelled in the crowd for waiting 2 years for this show and for showing up.
She had such amazing energy throughout her entire set – constantly jumping and dancing on stage with her bright red cowboy boots, and even taking items from the crowd, such as a pink fuzzy cowboy hat, and a bandana. She answered fans asking to marry her by responding that she had already been proposed to at her last show.
Mxmtoon then performed more songs such as “rising”, “dawn & dusk”, “the masquerade”, and even a song titled “i hate texas” from her new upcoming album. It was her first time performing the song in the state and she admitted that she was a bit nervous about the crowd’s reaction. The singer simply explained that the song had to do with Texas and name-dropped the city of Austin, where the crowd immediately got excited and started screaming, causing her to laugh. The crowd continued to cheer every time “Texas” or “Austin” was sung.
The show ended with 3 more songs from her rising album – “dance”, “coming of age”, and “mona lisa.” Before ending the set, Maia’s crew came out, including her mom holding a birthday cake. During the show, the singer mentioned that her birthday is on June 9th, the day after the Austin show. Her crew, mom, and all of the crowd joined in on singing and wishing her a happy 24th birthday.
Overall, it was such a fun, high-energy show provided by both Nep and Mxmtoon. Maia now continues opening for AJR on their current “The Maybe Man” Tour until August 3rd, and has a brand new album in the making.
I am a photographer, musician, and cosplayer, based in Austin! I spend a lot of time traveling around for events, and am constantly creating things, listening to music, playing bass guitar, or finding new hobbies to indulge in. I love being surrounded by music, and you can almost always catch me listening to some emo or pop-punk music.
