Knoxville indie rocker Briston Maroney gleefully brought his popular indie-rock set to two successful nights at the Fonda Theatre in Hollywood. An audience of all ages packed the room both nights, many of whom were dressed in Maroney’s signature style of hats and overalls. Met with lots of elevated cheers, he announced at the beginning of the show that he just recently moved to Los Angeles so this was “technically a hometown show”.
Despite also being sick, Maroney flawlessly paired his soft, strong singing with shredding guitar that sounded identical to his recorded tracks. He serenaded the crowd during slower songs such as June and Rose and had the entire room banging their heads during faster songs such as Small Talk and Chaos Party. He took to a drum solo during Sink or Swim and took a goofy moment to thank the audience, saying “I took off my shoes because they were untied and while I was playing drums barefoot, I was hit with an insane moment of gratitude that we get to be here playing our music barefoot for all of you, so thank you for being here!”
Maroney’s currently pink-and-blue dyed hair matched his funky, bright personality that was also perfectly translated in the stage design of the current Ultrapure world tour: huge, sparkly sea creatures with huge eyes loomed over the band’s larger-than-life stage presence. With this, he shared a funny, special story with the audience that he claimed to have only told a few times (although I can’t imagine seeing this live show now without knowing this context): “My lighting tech and I took edibles while watching the movie Meg 2 about the big shark…I looked over at him and said ‘We gotta have the ocean on the stage, dude’… Welcome to my fucked-up mind!”
To round out the night, he treated the audience to his most popular song Freaking Out On The Interstate, followed by a very special encore of Delaware and the Bob Dylan cover Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright featuring The Backseat Lovers, friends of his and a band who shares a very similar fanbase. Maroney’s catchy discography and joyous personality, funny quips and stories between songs, beautiful stage and lighting design, and even bigger stage presence made this live show a night to remember that perfectly summarized why he has built such a dedicated fanbase around his artistry. After such a monumental world tour that hasn’t stopped yet as he continues up the West Coast, we can’t wait to see what’s next for him!
Words by Sophie Weil
Photos by Jenny Sorto / Bad Wreck Media
