Live Review: Leanna Firestone + Abby Cates @ The Masquerade, Atlanta - June 19th, 2026

Jun 21
4 min read

Leanna Firestone photo by Anna Daugherty

The best shows are always the ones where the audience knows every single word, and Leanna Firestone's stop in Atlanta brought out some of the most passionate, loudest fans. The Masquerade quickly shifted into a room of collective dancing and heavy emotion. It was, without a doubt, a night for the books.

The evening began with the clean, melodic vocals of singer-songwriter Abby Cates, who commanded her entire set with nothing more than an acoustic guitar. Cates framed every song by sharing the intimate lore behind it, telling stories that ranged from awkwardly running into an ex's mom at the grocery store, to a summer cowboy fling, to a track inspired by a poem. The audience stayed completely captivated as she effortlessly navigated complex vocal runs and showcased her impressive range. For "Better Friends," she had the room chanting, "I need a fuckin' better friends list," sparking a massive surge of crowd energy that was almost the loudest moment of the entire night. Her set closed with "Roadtripsong," complete with whistling before a thunderous wave of applause washed over the floor. Before leaving the stage, she mentioned she would be returning shortly as part of Firestone’s backing band.

You could already tell the room was on the exact same wavelength during the brief intermission. Between sets, the crowd kept the energy high by loudly singing along to overhead house tracks like Noah Kahan’s "Stick Season" and Paramore’s "Still Into You." When it was finally time for the headliner, a dramatic, cinematic musical intro filled the room before launching into the explosive opening anthem, "Foreverever." The crowd was immediately hyped, singing along to tracks like "God and the Government," where the room collectively chanted "I'll paint the picket fence," along with screaming along to for the viral favorite, "You Just Didn't Like Me That Much."

Mid-set brought a stripped-down, acoustic interlude. Firestone’s backing band, which featured Abby Cates on guitar and keys and Molly Rose on drums, briefly left the stage. However, before they exited, Firestone shared a hilarious story about how about ten shows into the run, during this exact quiet section, Rose turned to her as she was walking off and asked, "Who's Randolph?" It was wild because after weeks of rehearsal and consecutive live shows, Rose had been mishearing the lyrics the entire time, assuming "Randolph" was some sort of Disney prince. Firestone then took to the keys alone, playing a mashup of "Two Week Notice" and "Burnt Out" while encouraging the room to lead the melody. Switching over to guitar, she then played a mashup of "Strawberry Mentos" and "Suneater," where the audience took the reins and sang the "Strawberry Mentos" portion entirely on their own.

Firestone offered background context for a number of her tracks throughout the night. Earlier in the evening, she explained her time spent working as an essential worker in 2020, recalling the uncertainty of not knowing when things would improve, before reassuring the crowd that it absolutely does and stepping into "Least Favorite Only Child." She later introduced "The Answer" as a track centered on that gut-check moment of knowing whether a relationship, a city, or a job is truly right for you.

However, the most emotionally heavy moment of the night belonged to the VIP-chosen surprise song, "Not Yet." Every night of the tour, the VIP fans vote on a wildcard track, and Cates returns to the stage to perform it with Firestone without even being told what song won until she walks out. Before playing it though, Firestone shared the vulnerable history behind the piece, detailing her father’s struggle with a meth addiction and how her career peaks have coincided with some of her hardest personal moments with him. She recalled receiving a text reading "I love you, I'm sorry" from him during the biggest show of her life, which ultimately led to her convincing him to enter rehab. Beautifully, the very addiction counselor who helped him was in the crowd that night. It was a rare live performance of the song for Firestone, who visibly teared up during the spoken intro, but all that which made the night even more special.

In a sharp tone shift that marked the return of full band, Firestone introduced the next song as very importantly being about "bitches I hate" before going into "Get Help." From there, she jumped into a hilarious story about their friend and touring crew member, Rosemary, who had blown them off to spend time with her boyfriend. Asking if anyone in the crowd was currently surviving a third-wheel dynamic, Firestone handed a button to a fan who raised their hand. She then pulled Rosemary onstage to deliver a perfectly workshopped, snarky remark about this being "virgin city" right before Firestone launched into "Best Friend's New Boyfriends Union." The main set wrapped up with a bang, playing the deeply relatable "Becoming Unbecoming" and the driving, upbeat "Victory Lap."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VijGrgm7B_M

Leanna Firestone - Victory Lap (Official Visualizer)

That momentum carried straight through into a two-song encore consisting of "Smitten" and "Town Ain't Big Enough," leaving the room dancing and singing like crazy to close out the night. Being the second-to-last stop on the entire tour run, both the performance energy and the emotional weight were running at an absolute high. Ultimately, it felt like a perfectly tailored evening for a dedicated community that appreciates candid, diary-like songwriting.