Faye Webster Captivates Houston’s White Oak Music Hall

Last Monday, Faye Webster paid Houston a visit on the lawn of White Oak Music Hall. Hundreds of fans gathered on the grassy and muddy hill to witness the twenty-six year old singer-songwriter perform with her band. Her set ran about an hour long, and she performed a combination of songs from her albums I Know I’m Funny haha (2021) and Atlanta Millionaires Club (2019), as well as completely new songs. 

The show’s opener, Maye, is a Venezuelan American performer who incorporates her understanding of Spanish and English into her songwriting. Her songs instantly captivated the audience, who started swaying and holding up their phone flashlights. Interestingly enough, Maye’s song “Tú” and Faye Webster’s song “Better Distractions” were both included on Barack Obama’s favorite songs of 2020. 

Opening with “But Not Kiss,” Webster introduced her new sound to the audience. The song was released in June of this year as a single, shortly followed by the release of another single, “Lifetime,” in September. Both songs are currently unattached to larger projects, but fans are hopeful that these releases mean an upcoming album release. 

She continued on with “Better Distractions” and “Kind Of,” taking a break after “Right Side of My Neck” to thank the audience and call us “super cute.” After a few more songs from I Know I’m Funny haha, Webster hopped on keys and played “Jonny,” which was clearly a fan favorite. Half the crowd joined in as she sang, “My dog is my best friend / And he doesn’t even know what my name is.” 

After playing a cover of “Eterna City,” a song from Pokémon, and her new song “Lifetime,” she made it a point to shout out her mom, letting everyone know that she was with us that night. At different points in her set, she also thanked Maye and introduced the members of her band, some of whom switched between different instruments, like violin and saxophone. The artist’s frequent casual communication made for such an intimate and relaxed vibe, which could really be felt in the crowd. 

Webster “ended” her set with a slightly up-tempo version of “Cheers,” but quickly returned with Maye for an encore. The pair played a new song called “Feeling Dumb Today,” harmonizing together with vocal modulators and simple, silly lyrics like “I got paid yesterday / I’ll probably buy something dumb.” 

Finally, the artist wrapped up her set with one her most popular songs, “Kingston,” and she even inserted a quick key change towards the end. There were few quiet audience members during and after this song, as everyone joined in to sing and thank Faye Webster for stopping in Houston on her tour.