It has been eight years since American indie pop band Foster the People last played any shows in Europe, including the Netherlands. On Monday, the 7th of July, the band finally returned to the country to play their first-ever show at 013, Tilburg. They played in the main hall of the venue, but the balcony was closed to the public for this occasion. The floor, however, was quite crowded, which made it still feel like the room was filled.
At exactly 20:00, support act Gordi (stage name of Sophie Payten) took to the stage together with her drummer Jeremy Black. The singer herself also played a variety of instruments, including the keyboard and electric guitar. First on the Australian singer-songwriter’s setlist was ‘Alien Cowboy’, which opened with a bass-heavy intro and featured quite a bit of autotune as a stylistic choice. She followed this up with the softer ‘Cutting Room Floor’ before taking the time to talk to the audience. Payten told the story of how she once was asked to meet Chris Martin when he and his band Coldplay were on tour in Australia. Together with seven other local artists, she was invited to have a chat with him, and when he asked if any of them played the piano, only Payten raised her hand. Payten wrote the song ‘Lunch at Dune’ about having to face something extremely tough, and it happened to make Chris Martin cry; that’s how much he loved it. Unfortunately, however, no one filmed this moment, and so the singer has no proof of this actually happening.
Payten continued her set with “a little gay love song [that] heterosexual people can enjoy as well” called ‘Way I Go’ and ‘Extraordinary Life’. The singer’s life has definitely been extraordinary recently while on tour with Foster the People. She stated how the shows have been rough, because at one show the electricity went out; her flight to another show was cancelled; and her merchandise did not show up until halfway through the tour, as border control had confiscated it. She did not let this get to her, however, and flawlessly played all her songs while also entertaining the crowd with her anecdotes. She finished her thirty-minute set with ‘Peripheral Lover’, one of the songs from her upcoming album Like Plasticine that will be out in August.
After a half-hour wait, the intro to Foster the People’s set started playing over the speakers. The first two people to take to the stage were bassist and keyboardist Micah Moffett and drummer Aaron Steele, who took their spots on a raised platform at the back. They were quickly followed by bassist Zane Carney, multi-instrumentalist Isom Innis, and finally, frontman Mark Foster himself. While the two full-time band members, Innis and Foster, both play a wide array of instruments, including the keyboard, guitar, and drums, the other three men helped to give their show an extra spark. The five of them opened the set with ‘Feed Me’, which flawlessly transitioned into ‘Lost in Space’. Third on the setlist was ‘Helena Beat’. It must be stated how enjoyable it was that Foster danced funkily around the entire stage, even though he was carrying his guitar half the time. Together with the huge beams of lights that acted as the show’s backdrop, this created a disco-like atmosphere. The unique synth-pop track ‘Glitchzig’ only added to this.
After playing ‘Coming of Age’, Foster talked to the audience about how they had not been in Europe for such a long time. This was partially because for a long time, the band had not put out any new albums. In 2024, however, they finally released Paradise State of Mind, their first album since 2017. The band continued their set with the second lead single from this album, ‘Take Me Back’, and the older ‘Imagination’. One highlight of the set was definitely ‘Miss You’, a very intense song with lots of instrumentals where Innis almost continuously banged on his drumset while smoke machines went off in the background. Other highlights that quickly followed were ‘Houdini’, which Foster played in its entirety while playing the keyboard that only Innis had been using so far, and ‘Call It What You Want’. All three songs are from their most famous album, Torches, and therefore received some of the loudest cheers from the crowd. In between, they played ‘Pseudologia Fantastica’, and afterwards, ‘Lamb’s Wool’, one of the few songs the band released in between albums.
For the final four songs before the encore, Foster the People barely ceased playing, the songs flowing into one another like an endless party. From ‘Don’t Stop (Color on the Walls)’ from Torches to ‘A Diamond to Be Born’ from A Paradise State of Mind, it was a ten-minute-long show of lights and dances, and groovy beats before the band left the stage. A crew member put down a stool for Foster to sit on at the start of the encore, but took it away mere seconds later. Foster was supposed to play an acoustic version of ‘Fire Escape’, yet decided to play ‘Nevermind’ with the entire band instead. Afterwards, he explained how they had not played this song in years, but as he knew there were people in the audience who had been fans since the very beginning, he wanted to play it for them, knowing they would appreciate it. Finally, Foster ended the night with ‘Next to Me’, which is a song that he said has some of his favourite lyrics he has ever written, and of course, the band’s smash hit ‘Pumped Up Kicks’. As loudly as possible, the audience sang along to the one song they had all been waiting for, especially when Foster pointed his microphone at them for the second-to-last chorus.
