Show Review: An Emotional Homecoming for Tiny Habits at Royale

By Ella Mastroianni, Blog Assistant

Artist: Tiny Habits

Venue: Royale

When: Saturday, April 13th

 

It makes complete sense that for the final show of the Little Bit Farther Tour, the trio of Tiny Habits would “come back to Boston” (as the lyrics go in one of their biggest hits, “hemenway”). Cinya Khan, Maya Rae and Judah Mayowa met just three years ago at Berklee College of Music, right down the street from the Royale, where on April 13th, they took the stage. 

Anyone who’s remotely on “the music side” of social media has likely come across the Habits. They’ve garnered attention for their beautiful harmonies and tender lyrics, as well as collaborations with artists like Noah Kahan and Kacey Musgraves. 

The three friends officially decided to become a band in 2022, and since then, they have released a handful of singles and one EP that have resonated with many in the folk-pop space. Their songs are grounded, poetic and extremely human, but that is only part of their charm. The rest of the charm is something that can only be heard, not explained. I infer that’s why Saturday night’s show was sold out, bursting with friends, fans and family of the band. 

Tiny Habits isn’t only a band, a sound or a collection of songs; it is many, many feelings. Upon entering Royale, I knew without a doubt that there would be crying and laughter throughout the night, but not everything could be so easily predicted… 

 

BEANE FROM BEANTOWN KICKS OFF THE NIGHT

Another former Berklee student, the host of The Salt Lick Sessions on WERS and a self-proclaimed “indie baby,” Beane was the opener of the night. One of the first things he did up on stage was connect with the audience, professing his love for Boston. “This city is so foundational to me. I lived here for six years,” he said. “I came out here. I fell in love here. I cried here. I threw up on the T.” Beane set a precedent at this moment in his set, as this was only the beginning of his heartfelt interactions with the audience.

Beane ensured everyone was singing and dancing with him, and at one point, even got the audience to hold a melody for a few minutes. I couldn’t help but laugh as the audience sang along and chanted “Pretty people can’t be trusted,” during a song called “Bitter.” A later song in his set, “Die With You,” was written as an attempt to write an Adele-type ballad. However, despite his intentions, he ended up with a song about aliens. His newest song, the jazzy “My June,” Beane performed in dedication to the women around him, including his grandmother. “I thought about all the women in my life and how my mind is just kind of constantly blown by their ability to do everything I can do, times two, in a full beat, with heels on.” 

Beane’s setlist of the night was short and sweet, but there was not a single person who would’ve complained if he had kept performing. Before singing “Honest,” Beane opened up about his journey as an artist and how he used to think he had to hide parts of himself to succeed. He addressed everyone in the room, but especially the college kids who made up a majority of the audience. “The second I stepped 100% into who I am is when I started to be surrounded by the community I had always dreamed of,” he said. The community—the audience in this case—embraced him fully, for not only his singing but everything he shared throughout the night. Someday, everyone at this show will get to brag about seeing him this early in his career. 

 

TINY HABITS FOR BIG FEELERS 

From “circling” to “one more,” to “small enough” to “delay,” Tiny Habits’ set began with one song quickly flowing to the next. There was a very fluid energy to the performance that the audience was more than happy to comply with. When the group did say hello after “delay,” they talked over each other, amazed at the sheer number of people in the room. “This is the last show of our tour and it seems really fitting that it's happening here at home for us,” Maya said. “There’s a lot of family and friends here for us tonight, so if we cry a lot, that’s why.” 

The audience was incredibly responsive to the trio's vocals, every run or high note receiving a cheer or applause. Naturally, this happened a lot throughout the show because there was no other way to respond to voices that were so skilled and angelic individually, not to mention put together all three. 

Their setlist included fan favorites like “hemenway” and “mudroom” (the latter certainly producing tears from the crowd) but the Habits had a few surprises up their sleeves. “The lights are gonna be pink, I don’t know if that tells you anything,” Maya said after performing “flicker.” A few voices in the crowd shouted back, “Barbie!” Their prediction came true as the audience was gifted with a Tiny Habits rendition of Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For.” 

This was only the first of three covers they did throughout the night. “Somewhere Only We Know,” and “Landslide” by Keane and Fleetwood Mac, respectively, were also performed with the trio’s beautiful spin. Each song choice was very different from the other, but they all thematically fit the Habits, for all three felt crafted for big feelers. 

 

BLOOMING CAREERS & BRAND-NEW MATERIAL 

Make no mistake that as much as Tiny Habits is a band, they are three individual musicians coming together in a union unmatched by any other. A special feature of their show was an original song by each of them, where the other two sang backup vocals. It went from Maya’s song “broken,” to Cinya’s “malleable,” and finally, Judah’s “planting flowers.” These three songs were gorgeous and gut-wrenching in the best way possible, still on theme with their collaborative music. 

After their independent songs, it only made sense that they had to preview their next collaborative song “wishes,” set to come out on April 23rd. The three confessed that they would likely cry during the song. It was tender and vulnerable, with some of their most unraveling lyrics to date. “I wish that I was harder. And I wish I was, less of a feeler so it wouldn’t hurt so much.” By the end of the song Maya and Judah were crying. Cinya assured the audience that she was fine, but moments later, after teasing from Judah, she joked that her look of composure was only because she was disassociating. Moments like this, where the group interacted with each other was a reminder of how special of a group Tiny Habits is. 

 

AN EXPRESSION OF PURE, REQUITED LOVE

Toward the end of the night, they had the band exit so that it was just the three of them on stage. “This is where we met exactly three years ago,” Maya said. “We are just three friends who met in college and decided to sing together one day on my dorm room floor. And then we started making videos in stairwells just for fun because we loved doing it together.” Maya got choked up thanking everyone for letting her live out her dream with her best friends.

For the first song of the encore, Cinya said, “Well you see, this song is about pocket change... dimes, nickels…” To finish her sentence, the crowd yelled out, “Pennies!” They played the track as if it was a voice memo — which is how it was originally released — stripped down and intimate. 

They then ended the night with “tiny things.” The moment they started to sing, a large portion of the audience pulled out red paper hearts. As the song says, there was “Lots of love, in tiny things” in the room. In this case, it was those hand cut pieces of construction paper that symbolized an outpouring of love; a sea of those who cherish the band and their music. 

Before Maya, Cinya and Judah left the stage, they blew kisses to the audience and met each other in a group hug at the center of the stage. Even though it wasn’t physically possible, somehow the entire audience was embraced too.