Songs to Listen To:
“Six Legs (tippy tappy toes)”, “Speak of the Devil”, “What’s Going On?!”, “One Man Circus”
If your eyes aren’t on Madilyn Mei right now, stop what you’re doing and tune in! Madilyn Mei, also known as Elio, is one of the most refreshing up and coming artists right now. Their music is some of the most hauntingly raw and honest songs I’ve heard in a really long time and I’m really pushing for them to gain in popularity, a firm believer that everyone would be a little bit better off if they take in some of the themes that Elio writes about.
Crafting a New Generation of Fans
My only experience with Madilyn Mei live prior to this show was opening for AJR earlier this year. While he put on a beautiful show, I didn’t get to see much of the fan experience, since the crowd was primarily made up of AJR fans. While there is some overlap, it was hard to get a read on their fanbase as a whole.
To my surprise, most of the fans at the show were quite young, most early teens or younger. I know a lot of the internet is concerned with being outside of the primary age range for shows at the moment, but it was such a joy to be an older fan at this show. It was an incredible opportunity for fans to learn concert etiquette, most of which was followed flawlessly. All of the younger fans were so invested in Elio and it made my heart so happy to know that they were having this life changing experience.
It’s also such a gift to Elio to be able to see their themes and lyrics impacting children, who are still so adaptable and tolerate of topics that may be considered controversial to others. Mei talks of something similar in his song, Speak of the Devil, wishing that they could have met their intolerant grandparents when they were younger. Their hope being that they could change their minds on some issues when they were more malleable. I hope it brings Elio such comfort to know that despite not being able to change the minds of their family, they’re introducing their fans to these topics in a way that’s so normalized and palatable, truly shaping the new generation into what we only can hope the future looks like.
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Literally Sobbing… The Whole Time… Not Joking
Elio’s music is so powerful. Despite his small stature, every word that they sing is so passionately delivered that everyone’s attention is immediately captured and not released until they stepped off the stage.
During the introduction of an unreleased song, currently going by If I Were the Sun, he describes writing this for their girlfriend, wanting to play it every night since they joined the tour. The song features lyrics describing the reason that Mei chose his name, Elio, was based on something that their partner saw one day. By the end of the song, Elio had gushed about them so much that everyone in the room was in tears, just by the sweet sentiments. (I was too sobbing uncontrollably at how beautifully they had expressed their love).
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The Fans Are The Best Part
For the entire duration of the show, Mei interacted with the fans, listening to the shouts from the crowd and joking with them for some of their remarks. During a small pause in the set, a fan shouted that Elio should do a flip. They quipped back that the fans wouldn’t get the rest of the show if they attempted that. The room erupted in giggles thereafter.
During another point in the show, Elio took a cowboy hat from a fan in the audience, wearing it for a song before returning it to the fan. At another section of the show, he took a fan’s phone who had been recording, taking a moment to record themselves from the stage before returning it to them.
During Kleptomaniacrow, they prepped the fans to let out all of the emotions they had been feeling, offering a section for a cathartic blood curdling scream. As you can imagine, everyone was absolutely ready for it and took the opportunity to let out the loudest, most collectively high pitched scream you’ve ever heard. I was incredibly thankful for my earplugs in that moment, but I know that felt so magical to experience from the middle of the pit.
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Though the Austin show was one of the last shows on the tour, Elio hinted at two more albums releasing soon. Keep an eye on him and make sure to stream their music below!
Check out our gallery from the show!
