Ally Salort turned New York City’s Mercury Lounge into a confessional on August 20, as though she was flipping through the pages of her diary and singing every line. The night doubled as a celebration of her debut EP Change of Plans, a body of work that brings her from TikTok covers to songwriter in her own right. What could have been just another Wednesday in the Lowest East Side instead became a communion – an intimate reckoning with love, uncertainty, and the fragile, stubborn hope that lingers in both.

Maeve Touhey opened the evening with a set that felt like the beginning of a story you want to hear until the very last word. Still fresh to streaming platforms, with only a few songs officially released, Touhey leaned on unreleased material that already sounded fully formed. Her voice carried a country-pop lilt, but landed with the conviction of an artist who has long known her place on stage. Even as the audience hushed itself, she filled the silence with something mighty, each note bringing a flare. Meeting her family before her set, including her grandfather beaming with pride, reminded everyone that for both Touhey and Salort – two New Jersey natives – this was a hometown night. Afterward, her grandfather found his way to the front row again, unable to contain his grin, gushing to anyone who would listen about how wonderful she sounded. And she did: radiant, self-assured, brimming with the confidence of someone destined to take flight.

By the time Salort floated onto the stage, the room shifted. No deafening cheers, no chaos – just a revered widening of eyes, a collective breath drawn in unison. She had them immediately. The front row sang back every lyric as if they’d lived them first, though her EP had barely been out a month. That’s the mark of a songwriter carving her initials into listeners’ hearts – her stories became theirs before the last chorus even ended.

Her voice, clean but textured with ache, traced through the room like light through stained glass. Between songs, she carried herself with disarming ease – equal parts humble and magnetic, the kind of presence that makes a crowd lean in closer instead of pulling back. What she’s building with Change of Plans feels less like an introduction and more like the beginning of a career already sharpened by honesty. Each track revealed her instincts for pop hooks and her willingness to peel back the skin to expose something rawer underneath.

It’s rare to feel a performer slip so easily between vulnerability and command, but Salort did it with grace. She left the impression that her music isn’t simply entertainment – it’s a bridge, a way of letting the audience hold a piece of her story and see themselves reflected back. For Mercury Lounge, a place built on sweat and intimacy, it was the perfect kind of night: one where the songs carried more than melody, they carried the weight of someone figuring out how to be alive and unafraid in front of us all.

Ally Salort has only just begun, yet if this night was any proof, her voice won’t be contained by small rooms for long. She walked off leaving behind more than applause – she left the echo of words people will still be humming weeks from now, the kind of echo that marks the first chapter of something bigger.