Kicking off Thursday’s Rolling Stone Future of Music Showcase was the superstar in a tulle skirt, Susannah Joffe. Near floating across the ACL Live stage, the equal parts indie and alt-pop singer enchanted a diverse crowd of SXSW Festival goers with a thirty-minute, seven-song set.
Joffe’s southern roots were undeniable. The former University of Texas student’s grittiness and drawl peeked out in every line as she opened with “Your Mother’s Name,” the titular track of her 2024 EP. With an impassioned and unflinching gaze, Joffe dared the crowd to look away as she made the stage hers, soaking up every bit of space as she engaged the still-forming crowd.
Her most recent single, “Texas Baby,” was next, and by far, her best performance of the night. Musing about the sweltering sun, Joffe brought the audience into the magic with a follow-along clap segment throughout the melody as she sang, “You burn so bright, but I can’t turn a blind eye / Yet I keep coming back, I keep coming back to you.” Clap-clap.
At the center of her set list was a triad of unreleased songs: a love song called “Madeline,” the angsty breakup anthem “You Ruined Paris,” and a poignant tribute to an ex-best friend titled “Like a Sister.” Joffe reminisced about the making of “You Ruined Paris,” recalling a conversation in the French city with her friend who was recently heartbroken.
“I’m about to put him on blast,” Joffe joked. [...] But he kept telling me about how he’d see these sculptures of the female form, and how they reminded him of her. And I thought, that’s so beautiful. I’m gonna write a song about that.”
The penultimate song of her set, “Omophagia,” which means “to eat raw flesh,” was an achingly beautiful testament to the consuming, addictive nature of love. Employing cannibalism as a metaphor for love, she sang “I wanna hold your heart in my hands, bleeding flowers and flesh / Eating your insides ‘til it makes me sick.”
The set then concluded the only way it could, with Joffe's hit single “Die Your Daughter.” The crowd joined her for the chorus that became a TikTok sensation during the summer of 2025, repetitively chanting “I will die your daughter.” After ending ironically on the lyric, “I’ll stick around if you will,” Joffe thanked her roaring audience and walked offstage, waving goodbye to the crowd that had easily doubled in size since the start of her set. Chatter from the audience following her departure confirmed my own thoughts throughout the duration of her set – “This girl’s gonna be big.”