With the slow sway of her white maxi skirt, Jensen McRae’s entrance onto the stage was both graceful and powerful. On the night of Oct. 8 in Music City, McRae lured her fans into a sold-out EXIT/IN, the perfect venue for her emotionally raw setlist. The tightly packed crowd was more than ready for Nashville’s turn on “The Praying For Your Downfall Tour.”
Back in 2023, a snippet of McRae’s track “Massachusetts” blew up on TikTok, and ever since then, her songwriting and fanbase have simultaneously reached new heights.
This was part of a time McRae playfully dubbed her “yearlong crash out,” when she was posting songs on social media almost every day; McRae acknowledged that she feels that period in her life is why she is here today, performing for dedicated fans. She laughed at herself as she spoke to the crowd.
“I do have to thank the mental instability for that,” McRae said.
McRae’s alluring yet subtle stage presence washed over the devoted crowd instantly. Stopping in Nashville on the second leg of “The Praying For Your Downfall Tour,” it was evident how comfortable McRae was as a headliner. This tour, as she explained to fans, was primarily to highlight tracks off her sophomore album, “I Don’t Know How but They Found Me!” And yet, McRae managed to overdeliver on that promise, showcasing impressive songwriting across years of unreleased songs, COVID-19-era EPs and even some unique covers.
After starting her set with a dynamic run of “The Rearranger” and “Savannah,” McRae stopped to chat with the audience about her next track, “Mother Wound.”
She shared more about the song’s background, reassuring the audience that “if you [also have] dated a Scorpio moon, you may be eligible for financial compensation.” McRae’s natural ability to connect on a deeper level with her audience soon became the trend of the night.
She then followed with her hit song “My Ego Dies in the End,” which quickly pivoted to one of the few happy songs in her discography “Good Legs,” a song about a positive situationship that led to self-discovery.
McRae’s reimaginations of the cover songs were outstanding, starting with a lively yet raw rendition of Maroon 5’s classic “She Will be Loved.” To mark the acoustic portion of the show, her band sauntered off the stage as McRae shared more insight into her next song, “Dead Girl Walking.”
She explained that she thought of “being the comic relief friend when you have depression,” when writing it. McRae said she wasn’t sure if the audience could also relate to that feeling but joked, “then again, if you’re at my show, probably.”
Then, McRae walked over to the keyboard for a powerful cover of Ethel Cain’s “American Teenager,” where the guttural lyrics perfectly highlighted McRae’s raspy vocals. Back at center stage with her guitar, Jensen played a song she said was written four months ago and which she had never played on stage before. Titled “Old Fashioned Family Values,” the song explored American race and class struggles with thoughtful lyricism; with no explicit timeline on a release date, McRae ensured the crowd that her team has more plans for the track.
Following a sneak peek into what McRae has been working on recently, the lucky audience got another unreleased song, “One More Cowboy,” which McRae has shared over Instagram live in the past. She divulged that she wanted to play it for Nashville because it’s country adjacent, revealing the song is not actually about dating cowboys but about dating too many actors.
As McRae launched into the next three tracks from her sophomore album, her band returned to the stage to back her up. She breezed through “Daffodils,” “I Can Change Him” and “Novelty” with confident ease before slowing things down for an emotional performance of “Let Me Be Wrong.” The crowd erupted during the fan favorite “Praying for Your Downfall,” where McRae introduced her band and invited the audience to join in on the bridge.
After the impassioned crowd begged for more of McRae’s stunning vocals, she came back out for a much-anticipated encore. During her performance of “I Don’t Do Drugs,” McRae displayed the peak of her vulnerability, her voice roughening with emotion. The weight of the emotions built into the song was heavy, and as the song reached a crescendo, McRae was able to turn her vulnerability into power.
“Watched you go, watched you outgrow me / Did you try to save a piece of me for your afterlife?” McRae sang.
The show culminated in perfect fashion, with fans gathered around their faithful leader, McRae, for one last song; to end her set, McRae fittingly chose the wildly popular “Massachusetts” off her sophomore record, with every lyric being sung directly back to her.
“The fire in my gut that I’ve chased ever since / You set the bar, you’re gonna’ stick.”
As the last words McRae sang into the microphone floated from the stage to the back bar of the venue, fans turned to each other with proud smiles; it was clear the sold-out crowd had witnessed a special show.
