It’s been only six years since Mad Tsai (stage name of American singer-songwriter Jonathan Tsai) released his first single ‘Boy Bi’. Tsai is an openly bisexual musician of Peruvian and Taiwanese descent who is known for writing music about his experiences growing up as a queer person of colour in the United States. Over the years, Tsai has gained himself an extensive, dedicated fanbase all across the world. His European fans must have been devastated when he had to cancel his first European tour in 2024, but now, 2 years later, the singer finally managed to cross the ocean after all. On September 27th, Mad Tsai brought the ‘Bite Back World Tour’ to Amsterdam’s Bitterzoet.
Fans had been waiting in line to see Mad Tsai perform since the early morning and were eager to get inside once the doors finally opened a few minutes past 19:30. Fortunately, they didn’t have to wait much longer at that point, as Tsai took to the stage at exactly 20:30 as planned. Tsai was joined by drummer Kody Jordan and guitarist Daniel Flores as he took his spot behind this mic stand, which was decorated with silver spikes. For the first part of tonight’s show, Tsai was wearing jeans and a metallic silver top. He began the show with ‘HOUNDSOFHELL’, a perfect opener to reference the tour’s title, as it includes the lyrics “Bitch, I bite back”, which he let the audience sing – or rather, scream. The rest of the songs on the first part of tonight’s setlist consisted of mostly older songs, as he continued with ‘boys beware’ and other songs from his first two EPs. “Welcome to the ‘Bite Back World Tour’” Tsai shouted after the final notes to ‘boys beware’ sounded. He took a moment to tell the audience he had a sore throat, and therefore he’d like to ask them to not scream over him when he’s talking so that everybody can hear him and to sing along as loudly as possible: “I need your guys’ energy!” The crowd was very respectful of his wishes, doing exactly as asked. He told them how this was his first time in Europe in his entire life, and as he’s “very American”, the canals and bikes in Amsterdam had left him flabbergasted.
While one would advise a singer with a sore throat to not speak so much at all, Mad Tsai went against this advice by telling the audience little stories throughout the entire concert. Before singing ‘teenage nightmare’, he explained how he wrote this song and the rest of his second EP, (title), during a very tumultuous time in his life. He felt like he never had a normal coming-of-age due to his growing up queer and Asian. It was followed by a few more slow songs, namely ‘in my head’; his first-ever single ‘that friend’, which he wrote about feeling like the third wheel in your friendgroup; and ‘mad world’. After taking a picture with the crowd, which took longer than planned as the crowd struggled to teach him the Dutch word for cheese and referenced a Dutch meme that left the audience cackling, Mad Tsai ended the first part of the night with a cover of Caroline Polacheck’s ‘So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings’ and his most-streamed song ‘killer queen’. He then left the stage for a quick set-up and outfit change.
Two candelabras were put on the sides of the stage before Mad Tsai and his bandmates returned. The singer now donned sunglasses, a black jacket over a sheer black blouse, and his jeans were adorned with silver tassels. The night’s second part would include mostly songs from his latest EP, CANINES. He opened with ‘mon chéri…’, during which he eventually took off the sunglasses. This was followed by two of Tsai’s most upbeat songs, ‘STRAYS’ and ‘DA DA DA’. He then told the crowd it was time to slow it down for a few songs before he’d bring the energy back up. The audience would get to “shake ass” later, including the parents who’d been dragged along. Mad Tsai took off his jacket, causing quite some screams from the audience even though he kept the sheer blouse on, before telling the audience that he wrote the next song about a friend who he’d grown up with but had to cut out of his life. This friendship break-up song has been the result of said friend hurting him so much that he realized they didn’t respect Tsai as a friend nor as an artist. To him, this was akin to the removal of wisdom teeth: the only way to get rid of the pain is by cutting them out. Therefore, the song is titled ‘wisdom tooth’. He followed with two more slower songs, namely ‘starved’ and ‘no one’s son’. Tsai described the latter as the adult version of ‘teenage nightmare’. He wrote it about the realization that heavy feelings do not necessarily disappear as soon as one matures and it turned out to be his favourite song from the EP (besides ‘BITE’), as it came out exactly right. Several fans could be found crying while Tsai performed this relatable track.
While people were still wiping away their tears, Tsai picked the energy right back up as promised. “You might have heard of her, she’s kinda famous,” he said as a way to introduce the next song. “Or actually, her family members are”. Of course, Tsai referred to one of his biggest hits, ‘Stacy’s brother’. Near the end of the bridge, right before Tsai, in the song, tells Stacy his secret, the music suddenly stopped for a second as he told the audience that he forgot how the rest of the song goes. He even asked his band members if they knew the words, but they also shook their headsRe. “It’s not Stacy’s mom…,” Tsai said, which led to laughter. “Oh, I remember: I’m in love with your big brother!” The song was, of course, inspired by Fountains of Wayne’s ‘Stacy’s Mom’ and has become a real queer anthem. Now that the entire crowd was back to its enthusiastic shenanigans, Tsai continued the show with ‘DIET’ and ‘One of the Boys’ before leaving the stage once more.
Mere seconds later, Tsai returned for the encore, once again having changed part of his outfit. He was now wearing a pink long sleeve on which the word ANTI:idol could be read. This turned out to be the title to a new song he wrote and performed for the audience tonight. Another real Mad Tsai banger, the audience can only hope it will be released on streaming soon. This night really showcased the contrast between Mad Tsai’s slower, introspective songs, such as ‘no one’s son’ and ‘in my head’, and those in which he’s confident and sassy, such as ‘HOUNDSOFHELL’ and ‘DA DA DA’. It’s clear that Mad Tsai can easily flow between making upbeat bangers inspired by his love of k-pop and making softer music that makes the audience shed tears. Tonight, he ended the show by asking the crowd for one last favour: to say hello to those on one’s left and right, because they would be your best friends to dance with for the final song, ‘BITE’. The audience proved that they hadn’t tired of Mad Tsai just yet, because even though it seemed impossible, the audience was the wildest it’d been the entire night, jumping, dancing and screaming along one last time before the show truly had to come to its end.
