Sophie Truax
Sophie Truax | Strung Along Tour | New York City
January 24, 2025
Photographed by Haley Petrone
Sophie Truax, puppet maker turned pop star, set off on her first ever nationwide tour across the United States, and Crave Music Magazine had the opportunity to attend and photograph her show in New York at the Mercury Lounge. The stage was framed beautifully with giant sculpted flowers. On the stage itself was a chair, an old telephone, and a suspicious looking small black curtain.
The lights dimmed, as a faint hum of backing track rang through the speakers. Sophie's voice is heard bickering with an unknown person about what she'll do onstage, mentioning she practiced her Kermit the Frog impression and that “everyone’s here for the muppets.” Eventually they settled on her doing her “own thing” and then she's running, and almost tripping, onto stage.
Sophie starts off her set with “Untethered”, her most well known song, to warm up the crowd and get them hyped up. Sophie has an ethereal and melodic voice that had everyone in the room mesmerized. Alongside singing, Sophie also played guitar for two songs. Which limited how much she could dance, but allowed for some nice shots. Accompanying her on the drums was Mikee Colet as well as Lorenzo Wood on bass guitar, who both killed it in the rhythm sections.
Most of Sophie Truax’ lyrical content delves into her experiences in past relationships, allowing her young audience to really connect and relate to the music and some might even look to it as validation while actively experiencing similar situations. These past relationships of Sophie’s have been manifested into puppets that accompany her on tour. Throughout each song a puppet appears behind the suspicious black curtain dancing and mouthing the lyrics the best they can. Sophie even briefly will walk over and interact with the puppets.
Halfway through the set Sophie got a call on her rotary phone from who only I could assume is one of her puppet’s, Zeb, a lawyer who insisted, per their legal agreement Sophie must find them a puppet-sized lover at every stop on tour. A speed dating contest ensues and three fans who brought their own puppet are picked from the crowd and brought on stage to participate in the contest. The fans were then asked three different questions and Zeb could choose who he wanted… for the night. Out of the three contestants Zeb chose Gladys, a sock puppet with yarn hair and a beautiful smile. Shows always stand out when antics like this happen and this was no exception. This unique crowd engagement made the show just that much more personal and memorable, especially for the people who got to go up on stage with Sophie.
The chair was used during the song “Waste My Wishes”, one of Sophie’s more vulnerable and intense songs. Sophie sits on the chair for the entirety of the song, a short breather before the energy picks back up for the end of the show. This song was placed meticulously in the set. The audience was endowed with this rawness and emotion which was let out with the final two songs. The crowd seemed to be the most passionate during her song “MFPRIUS”. Sophie even says herself that it's one of her favorites she's written because of how fun it is, full of your mom jokes and TOYOTA spelled out in the first letter of each verse of the bridge. The crowd’s energy was most definitely at its highest throughout this song, with everyone in the room dancing and singing along.
Sophie brings a very energetic and aloof personality to the stage; which I believe is not far off from who she genuinely is. Sophie’s lighthearted and playful attitude was spread over the entire crowd while they all danced and cheered through the entire show. Sophie’s career is just starting out, but she is not something you'll want to overlook. Whether you are a fan of Sophie Truax already or not, you will be once you’ve seen her live. Sadly her most recent tour has finished, but you can listen to her newest EP Kissing with a Cavity on streaming.
