Unpacking God in the Suburbs: All Things Go Lineup 2023

Take a seat, grab your wallet, and shed a tear. The All Things Go 2023 lineup has dropped.

If you’re thinking, “What things go?” you should know that All Things Go (ATG) is a local music festival that has brought indie artists to the DMV since 2014, the lineups increasing in size and artist popularity each year. Past performers include Lorde, Mitski, Bleachers, HAIM, and Faye Webster. ATG is like the Coachella of the mid-Atlantic for indie fans and gay people, but without the flower crowns, ecstasy, and cultural appropriation. Next fall, ATG, hosted by the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD, is more illustrious than ever before.

ATG 2023 boasts thirty-two artists between two stages over the weekend of September 30 and October 1. Saturday’s headliner is Maryland native and alternative indie queen Maggie Rogers, and Sunday flaunts not one but two headliners: the ethereal Lana Del Rey and rugged indie rock trio Boygenius. The other twenty-nine bands and artists at ATG are sure to rock the day away before the headliners grace the stages. Here’s what we can expect from the indie fever dream that is ATG.

 

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By the time she arrives at ATG, Maggie Rogers will have toured twice in just one year, performing her most recent album Surrender, as well as her records Notes From the Archives and Heard It In A Past Life on the Feral Joy Tour. “[Surrender] was made to play live,” Rogers told Cultured Magazine in December of 2022 before she embarked on the first Feral Joy Tour. Rogers’s recent shows have included around twenty songs, including a two-song encore. We can be sure that Rogers will dedicate the majority of the set to Surrender, incorporating a few older songs for her long-time fans. “Overdrive,” “Begging For Rain,” and “Anywhere With You” are musts, and “Alaska” and “Leave the Light On” are certain odes to Heard It In A Past Life. This year is Rogers’s second time headlining ATG, as she headlined alongside Billie Eilish in 2018 when the festival was held at Union Market in Washington, DC.

It’s been five painful years since Lana Del Rey’s last tour. This festival is the first opportunity that most DMV fans will have to hear Del Rey’s newest record, Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd. Essentials of her discography include the recent record’s title track alongside “Summertime Sadness,” “Norman fucking Rockwell,” “Cinnamon Girl,” “Brooklyn Baby,” “West Coast,” and “Lust For Life.” There’s no limit to the magic of the spell Del Rey will cast over the pavilion. It isn’t unreasonable to believe that Del Rey might bring a collaborator onstage, considering that six of the sixteen songs on the new record feature notable artists. Might she bring out Taylor Swift for “Snow On The Beach?” We can only pray and dream…and then pass out.

Arguably the most up-and-coming indie band right now, Boygenius was knee-deep in rumors of this year’s lineup. A holy trinity of Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker, Boygenius’s discography explores themes of mental health, social resistance, heartbreak, and friendship. Just a few weeks ago, Boygenius released their first full-length album, titled the record. They’ve only played a few concerts following the release, and online fan videos show that the boys breathe life into their shows that creates a glowing atmosphere that almost doesn’t seem real. Boygenius has only released eighteen songs in the close to five years they’ve shared together, so the chances that you’ll hear your favorite Boygenius song at ATG are high. Besides the obvious singles from the record (“Not Strong Enough, “$20,” “Emily I’m Sorry,” and “True Blue”), it is likely that we’ll hear “Cool About It” and “Anti-Curse” from the new album. Probable tracks from Boygenius’s self-titled 2018 EP include “Me & My Dog” and “Salt In The Wound.” In addition to the record tracks stated, the set will undoubtedly include “Letter To An Old Poet,” the closing track of the record that samples “Me & My Dog.” Is it too much to ask the boys to play their entire discography?

It’s almost impossible to envision Ethel Cain in the flesh. Her aura is of spiritual transcendence and otherworldliness. Cain’s discography revolves around her traumatic Southern Evangelist upbringing, and each song is more haunting than the last. Her most streamed songs include “American Teenager,” “Crush,” “A House In Nebraska,” and “Golden Age,” whose hushed, menacing melodies will inevitably filter through the pavilion. Read my fellow staff writer Alexa Julian’s piece on Ethel Cain to learn more about Cain’s rise into the realm of music and her most recent record Preacher’s Daughter. Cain’s presence in Columbia, MD, gives Boygenius’s lyric in “Anti-Curse” a new meaning: “Unpackin’ God in the suburbs […] An incantation like an anti-curse/ Or even a blessing.”

Self-proclaimed as the greatest band in the world, MUNA brings incredibly queer energy to any stage they inhabit. The trio is made up of Katie Gavin, Naomi McPherson, and Josette Maskin, pronounced by the amusing fact that Gavin and McPherson are exes. Ah, gay people. MUNA’s most popular songs include “Silk Chiffon,” “Anything But Me,” “What I Want,” “I Know A Place,” and their most recent single, “The One That Got Away.” “Silk Chiffon,” which features Phoebe Bridgers, is a wildly popular summer anthem that brings sunshine and youthful joy to mind. The chance of MUNA bringing Bridgers and potentially the other members of Boygenius onstage is significant, seeing as they did just that on tour with Bridgers in 2022 and last weekend at Coachella. It will be a gay, gay time at ATG Day 2.

Having elevated her popularity from her role as Karen Sirko in the hit series Daisy Jones & The Six, Suki Waterhouse is a force to be reckoned with. Waterhouse’s unique and graceful voice as well as her roles in films and television set her apart from other alternative artists. In 2022, Waterhouse released her first album and subsequent EP, titled I Can’t Let Go and Milk Teeth respectively. The full-length record bursts with ten marvelous melodies, the most streamed of which are “Bullshit on the Internet,” “Devil I Know,” and “Moves.” These three songs consistently appeared on Waterhouse’s setlists from her Coolest Place In The World Tour. Thanks to the land of TikTok, “Good Looking” is overwhelmingly Waterhouse’s most popular song, making it extremely likely to grace the ATG set. Perhaps Waterhouse will pull out Karen’s pianist skills for her set, bringing seventies rock and roll to mind.

Propelled into fame by their original acoustic ballad “We’ll Never Have Sex,” Leith Ross is an artist whose lyricism remains heartbreakingly raw in every song. The majority of Ross’s songs are slow and set against the quiet strums of acoustic guitar. Their recent single “(You) On My Arm” is a definite part of the set, as well as “Orlando,” “Tommy,” and “Monogamy.” Furthermore, Ross will inevitably bless us with songs from their new album To Learn, which debuts on May 19.

Samia’s voice is as sweet as the refrain of her song “Honey.” Samia’s music, which has been deemed part of the “sad girl” genre, deals with emotional rollercoasters and intrusive thoughts. Likely songs at ATG include “Kill Her Freak Out,” “Mad At Me,” and “Big Wheel,” in addition to “Honey,” of course. Samia has collaborated and toured with other ATG 2023 artists like Maggie Rogers, Phoebe Bridgers, and Tommy Lefroy. It seems that sharing the stage could be a theme at ATG this year. Who else can’t wait for the afterparty photos?

“Going to tell my future kids about how #atg2023 made everyone cry,” @AllThingsGo tweeted a few months ago. You would be hard pressed to find anyone who disagrees. Beginning as a small festival with just eight artists in 2012, ATG has grown into a DMV music powerhouse over the last decade. The ATG team deserves a round of applause for this year’s artist selections. By centering women and queer artists, ATG demonstrates the impact of live music on audiences who see themselves in the cool kids onstage.

Throwback to All Things Go 2022

Citations:

All Things Go. “All Things Go on Instagram: ‘Workin On It Besties.’” Instagram, 22 Feb. 2023, https://www.instagram.com/p/Co-pb_5u94i/.

Bergado, Gabe. “Allow MUNA to Reintroduce Themselves.” W Magazine, W Magazine, 21 June 2022, https://www.wmagazine.com/culture/muna-band-album-interview-2022.

“Boygenius Setlist at Coachella Festival 2023.” Setlist.fm, 16 Apr. 2023, https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/boygenius/2023/empire-polo-club-indio-ca-13b88dc1.html.

Gunn, Charlotte. “Samia: ‘There’s a Loneliness to Feeling Like Your Thoughts Are Too Ugly.’” The Forty-Five, 1 Feb. 2023, https://thefortyfive.com/interviews/samia-honey-interview-2023/.

“Lana Del Rey Setlist at the Criterion, Oklahoma City.” Setlist.fm, 18 Dec. 2019, https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/lana-del-rey/2019/the-criterion-oklahoma-city-ok-5b9a9350.html.

“Leith Ross Setlist.” Setlist.fm, 17 Apr. 2023, https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/leith-ross/2023/lafayette-london-england-23b8f4a3.html.

“Maggie Rogers Setlist at the Eastern, Atlanta.” Setlist.fm, 22 Feb. 2023, https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/maggie-rogers/2023/the-eastern-atlanta-ga-63ba82fb.html.

“MUNA Setlist.” Setlist.fm, 14 Apr. 2023, https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/muna/2023/empire-polo-club-indio-ca-63b89e93.html.

Peyton, Dix. “Maggie Rogers Wants You to Surrender.” Cultured Magazine, 6 Dec. 2022, https://www.culturedmag.com/article/2022/12/06/maggie-rogers-surrender-album.

“Samia Setlist at Music Farm, Charleston.” Setlist.fm, 14 Apr. 2023, https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/samia/2023/music-farm-charleston-sc-53b8ff15.html.

“Suki Waterhouse Setlist at Autódromo De Interlagos, São Paulo, Brazil.” Setlist.fm, 26 Mar. 2023, https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/suki-waterhouse/2023/autodromo-de-interlagos-sao-paulo-brazil-7bbbea08.html.