06.05.2025 | Samia
Raffaella
Turner Hall Ballroom| Milwaukee, WI
I stumbled upon Samia some point last year and was disappointed to not have many shows on the books. Well thank goodness that was due to a new album and headlining tour planned for this summer. Samia’s much anticipated third album “Bovine Extinction” is the follow up to 2023’s breakout “Honey”. It’s definitely one of our favorite releases this year (and who are we?) but it’s also making both Paste Magazine’s and Consequence’s lists of best albums so far this year. Thursday’s show was highly anticipated and drew fans from across the midwest.
Longtime fans were rewarded right away with “Triptych” off 2020’s “The Baby”, the final single from her debut album. “Dare” felt like the perfect follow up with Samia on keys, lit from above, seemingly continuing the story of love and difficult choices. The audience erupted for “Fair Game”, a song that inspired several fan shirts polling if you were a sun bug, or a drill bug.
Samia continued through “Bloodless” before throwing it back with “Big Wheel” and the ever popular “Kill Her Freak Out”. It’s a masterpiece in storytelling and emotion, the simple somber keys, emoting heartbreak and then absolute revenge of heartbreak “I hope you marry the girl from your hometown and / I”ll fucking kill her / And I”ll fucking freak out”
The rest of the set featured the remainder of the songs from “Bloodless” including the intro, used as an outro, in this case. It’s an absolute testament to the quality of songwriting, and set building, to have an album played in its entirety that isn’t an anniversary tour.
A three song encore was closed out with the feel good anthem and title track “Honey”. With the exception of wanting to hear a personal favorite “Making Breakfast” you couldn’t have crafted a better evening. If Samia wasn’t on your radar before I would definitely catch up before you can’t find a ticket to shows anymore.
Fellow Peach Fuzz bandmate Raffaella was a pleasant surprise. An absolute high-energy, indie-pop delight, with a sense of humor to match at one point musing if she were to get a face tattoo she’d have to go by “Lil Raf Midwest”. Raffaella just finished up tour with Annie DiRusso playing Vivarium Sunday June 8.
