Read previous – Samia shines at the Skyline Stage // Samia at Johnny Brenda’s
Fresh off the release of her excellent sophomore LP Honey, Nashville-via-NYC singer-songwriter Samia played a show at Union Transfer in Philly on Wednesday, February 8th along with opener Tommy Lefroy. Known for her intimate lyrics and powerful vocals (on tracks like “Is There Something in the Movies?” from her 2020 debut LP The Baby), she’s earned a place among our most beloved indie pop contemporaries – so much so that her absence on Taylor Swift’s upcoming The Eras Tour seems like an oversight. On Honey, she delves deeper into pop territory on tracks like “Mad At Me”, “Sea Lions” (with it’s extended dance-y outro), and “Amelia”, while also delivering on the quiet and introspective like with album opener “Kill Her Freak Out” and the heartbreaking “Breathing Song”. This dichotomy carries through her live performance and enamors her to the crowd, as she alternates between hushed/low-key numbers and her more upbeat tracks. And if there’s one thing thing you can be sure of at a Samia concert – she gonna dance.
Accompanied by an organ/synth and backlit by stage lights, Samia kicked off her set with “Kill Her Freak Out” – while the album was just released a few weeks prior, the crowd already knew the lyrics and sung along emphatically. She played through nearly the entirety of Honey, but also included a bunch of tracks from The Baby (like “Fit N Full” and “Big Wheel”) and Scout EP. Mid-set, she performed a heartfelt rendition of “Breathing Song” followed by “Honey”. She then admitted to feeling more vulnerable singing her happy and earnest songs because having hope is so pathetic – I couldn’t agree more. After an extended round of applause for “Is There Something in the Movies?”, she was joined on stage by Wynter and Tessa from Tommy Lefroy to end her set with “Dream Song”. She then closed out the night with a 2-song encore including a better-than-the-original cover of AC/DC’s “You Shook Me All Night Long” and “Show Up”.
Samia will be continuing on tour through the spring and will be back in the area again for a show at Asbury Lanes on 4/23 – tickets for that show are available here. Check out Samia’s music video for “Honey” below (can confirm this is what a Samia show is like) and keep scrolling to see more photos from the show.
