Seeing Sarah Kinsley at Le Studio TD in Montreal on April 23, 2026 was a long awaited evening that didn’t disappoint. It had been almost exactly a year since I missed her show in Minneapolis on April 13, 2025 due to a later than planned return from a road trip that morning. I can still remember checking my phone throughout the duration of the drive hoping that miraculously an hour or two would fall off of our arrival time on Apple Maps. By the time of her 2025 performance in Minneapolis, it had already been a few years since her song “Karma” had found me in my Spotify Discover Weekly. That song pulled me into her artistry and the melancholy sounds of “The Giver” and “I’m Not A Mountain” affirmed my intrigue. When her album Ascension was released in 2023, I pleasantly enjoyed hearing her sound evolve, and again with her album Escaper in 2024. Her sound seamlessly blends eclectic and dreamy instrumentals with profound lyrics. She is one of few artists that make me both want to frolic and sob on my bathroom floor. This continued to be true with her most recent EP Fleeting, so I was nothing short of ecstatic to see Montreal included on her tour for the EP. Her show managed to make Le Studio TD, what I would consider to be a medium sized venue, feel like an intimate setting. The audience swayed and melted into the euphoric sounds of “Fleeting” and “Truth of Pursuit”. In between songs she spoke with the audience as if we weren’t quite as distant as a room full of strangers, even sharing an embarrassing anecdote about an exchange with her pen pal in high school French class. By the time she sang “Reverie” and “After All”, it felt almost as though we were listening to a friend tell us the painful pieces of her most recent heartbreak. For her performance of “After All”, the band left the stage and she spoke with us before beginning to play, just her and the keyboard. She captured the feeling of honesty and vulnerability that her lyrics echoed. While I was too entranced to look around, I feel confident there were others around me that couldn’t help but shed a tear before the band returned and we all returned to reality somewhat, but not completely. Sarah Kinsley’s talent has always been present in her unique sound, but after our evening together for the Fleeting tour, it’s clear she is also a talented performer. No tricks or gimmicks, but an authenticity that feels rare. In my opinion, the worst part of the evening was deciding which album to bring home with me on vinyl. (Ani M)