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Matt Maeson in a room this size is going to be something else. The Virginia Beach singer-songwriter brings his Watch My Step Tour to Empire Live in Albany on Saturday, July 18 at 8:00 PM — and if you’ve heard even one of his records, you know this show is going to leave marks on the walls.
About Matt Maeson
Maeson broke through in 2016 with “Cringe,” a song that clawed its way to the top of the Billboard Alternative Songs chart and stayed there longer than any debut by a new artist in the chart’s history. That’s not a fluke stat. That’s a song connecting with people on a level that radio programmers couldn’t ignore and listeners couldn’t shake. His debut album Bank on the Funeral followed in 2019 and made him the first solo male artist to land two No. 1 Alternative hits from a debut record.
What makes Maeson compelling is the tension in his music. His songs sound massive — huge drums, layered guitars, vocals that go from a whisper to a roar inside a single verse — but the lyrics are deeply personal, wrestling with faith, addiction, redemption, the kind of heavy subject matter that lesser artists would flatten into cliches. Maeson doesn’t flatten anything. He digs in.
Live, that intensity translates into the kind of show where the room itself seems to vibrate. He’s a physical performer — all coiled energy and release. In a standing-room venue like Empire Live, expect it to get loud, sweaty, and cathartic.
Venue Info
Empire Live is Albany’s mid-size room on Central Avenue — about 1,500 capacity, standing room, and the kind of venue where you can feel the bass in your chest from any spot in the house. Formerly Northern Lights, it’s got solid sound, a good bar, and no bad sightlines. For an artist like Maeson who feeds off crowd energy, this is the right room. You’re going to be close enough to see the veins in his neck.
Tickets & Pricing
The Watch My Step Tour stop at Empire Live has been announced. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster. Maeson is the kind of artist who sells out mid-size rooms before casual fans realize the show was even booked. Move on this one.