There is no album more nostalgic than Allie X’s Cape God. I had discovered Allie X during her Super Sunset album release, but it wasn’t until Cape God that I discovered my artistic integrity as a photographer. It was also during this album release that Allie X became the first artist to support my dreams of being a photographer within the music industry, giving me the chance to photograph her one-on-one at the AGO in Toronto. Ultimately, when it came time to tour the album after its initial release in early 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic brought an unexpected halt to the era. Despite the release of the successor album Girl With No Face in 2024, it didn’t stop Allie X from bringing Cape God on the road in 2025 for four limited anniversary shows.
Taking to the stage first was opener Maiah Manser. Hailing from Los Angeles, Maiah brought her ethereal sounds to Toronto starting her set off with “Hollywood” from her album Fourth Wall. Performing “Bad Habits” I took the time to appreciate her stage set, with two microphones set up, a few beat pads, and her laptop, Maiah made it certain that she was a master at mixing live on stage, seamlessly flowing each song from one to the next. During her set she also showed off the power of her voice, the strong dynamics of hitting higher notes, as well as lower soft tones, and the ability to hold those notes for a long time. Speaking to the crowd, she thanked Toronto for coming out to support her and Allie X, and that she was excited to be performing here. She went on to tell the crowd that she was performing a mix of unreleaed and released songs, and stated that the next song “Pretty Enough” was written for any person who was told that they weren’t good, pure, straight, or great enough, and that she had a bone to pick with people who made us question that about ourselves. Closing her set with song “With A Smile”, she got the entire audience to be on the track. She played a tone and got everyone in the room to sing it back to her for ten seconds while she recorded it live on stage. She showed the crowd the different effects and tones she could do with the ten second recording and used it as a base to flow throughout the track. Thanking the crowd, she left the stage in preparation for Allie X.
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With the elemental sounds of birds chirping, frogs croaking and what sounded like a thunderstorm far off in the distance echoing from the stage speakers, the lights soon dimmed and song “Cape God Theme” echoed across the room as band members got into place. An orb stationed in the middle of the stage flicked to life as Allie X made her way to the centre of the stage to kick off night one of four of the Cape God fifth anniversary tour. Starting the set with song “BITCH”… Wait. She didn’t start a show with “BITCH”? Is this the real Allie X? No, this is the Allie X giving Cape God what it deserves. Starting the set with “Fresh Laundry”, “Devil I Know” and “Regulars”, Allie X made it certain to those in the crowd that this was a moment for nostalgia and reminiscing on the ethereal past era. Taking a moment to talk with the audience, Allie X did speak about its untimely release, and how she wanted to do this anniversary tour to close a gap in her career after previously touring Girl With No Face. My excitement came out full force as she went into the next track (which is also my favourite song from Cape God) “Sarah Come Home”. Taking a tambourine off her piano, Allie X magically danced her way to and from both sides of the stage, while I was in the crowd, almost screaming the lyrics.
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Twirling around the stage, doing her iconic ‘vocal pops’, and running through timeless songs “Rings a Bell”, and “June Gloom” I noticed that during this show she had very little playback to the instrumental production from the actual album and was mainly getting the live band to perform the tracks from the ground up. This added more to the experience, giving Cape God its true moment to shine, showing that the album is not about the production of the songs, but about the places you can escape, and where the road will lead you in life. Going into the song “Love Me Wrong”, Allie x brought Maiah back to the stage to perform the song with her. The track on the album features Troye Sivan, but would I be wrong to say that Maiah on the track sounded better? Sorry Troye.
As the setlist had been run through, Allie X was doing what she promised when she announced the tour, playing the Cape God album front to back. It was at this point in the show that she changed things up, moving to perform the deluxe tracks, “Milk”, “Limited Love”, “Anchor” and previously iconic unreleased, now released song,“Rising Tide”. The deluxe track segment of the show gave each band member a time to shine on the tracks, from guitar solos, to slapping basses and pounding drums, the entire crew of the tour brought to the table their most exquisite talents for Toronto to hear. Moving back to the main songs of the album Allie X performed a newer spin on “Super Duper Party People” before finishing up the rest of the Cape God songs with “Life of the Party”, “Madame X” and “Learning in Public”. With a brief pause to the show, Allie X came back out to perform encore tracks “Off With Her Tits” from Girl With No Face and “Casanova” from Collextion II, before wrapping up the first show of the Cape God anniversary tour.
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Cape God was initially a bold departure from the dark pop elements of Collextion I & II, and the electronic synth sounds of Super Sunset, but Allie X knows how to make each era unique and memorable in its own. Finally giving Cape God its moment to shine on tour, and the rush of nostalgia I felt to such memorable times, I am happy to say that I have finally heard all 17 tracks of the album live. If you want to feel the same feelings I did on this tour, be sure to grab your tickets, as she stops in New York City on May 4th, Los Angeles on May 7th and in Mexico City on May 10th. Also, as usual, don’t forget to stream the deluxe version of Cape God below on Spotify:
