On Monday, the 8th of December, Canadian singer ThxSoMch (stage name of Carter De Fillippis), made a stop in Utrecht, The Netherlands as part of his ‘The Sound of You Laughing World Tour’. The tour was named after his debut studio album, which was released earlier this year. His breakthrough moment, however, had already taken place in 2022 with the release of ‘SPIT IN MY FACE!’, which garnered over 700 million streams and gained De Fillippis quite a fanbase, including, of course, those in attendance tonight.
Doors to the venue opened at 19:00, and fans only had to wait thirty minutes before the first support act took to the stage. German singer h3nce (stage name of Henri Schamann) got the job to warm up the crowd for half an hour. Now 19, Schamann has been releasing music since he was just 15 years old, and just released his debut EP WRITE IT ON YOUR FLAGS. Together with him on stage was drummer Noah Anderson, and the two of them definitely got the venue heated. Several people in the audience were clearly familiar with Schamann’s music, and everyone who wasn’t yet still gave the singer all their energy. Schamann urged the audience to move, and especially, to mosh. “If you don’t move, you suck!” he said before playing ‘SUNLIGHT HITS YOUR FACE’. One fan had been asking him to take a video on his phone throughout the whole set, and six songs in, Schamann finally grabbed it from them, which led to enthusiastic cheers. Before Schamann ended the set with his two biggest songs, he asked the audience to move one more time, as this was the last show of his first-ever European tour. Everyone eagerly obliged as ‘VICTIM TO MY BRAIN’ and ‘GUN TO MY HEAD’ were performed.
After some quick changes on the stage of the Pandora room, ALEXSUCKS took to the stage at 20:20. The American band consists of lead singer and guitarist Alex Alvarez, guitarist John Luther, bassist Garrett Orseno, and drummer Jonny Ransom. At first, Alvarez was wearing a jacket and a fuzzy hat, but throughout the set, both were taken off. Slightly less moshing ensued as the band hit the stage, but the audience was still sweating as they moved through songs such as ‘Whatever I Want’ and ‘The Headache’. Especially the sixth song on the band’s setlist, ‘What’re We Doing Here’, garnered a lot of enthusiasm, mostly because the song included a lot of “la la la”. Multiple fans got on top of their friends’ shoulders during this song, which Alvarez really loved. Another song that was easy to sing along to was ‘6 Pack and Cigarettes’, which went “I need a six pack and some cigarettes”. A wall of death and more moshing took place. “If you think we suck, fuck you,” Alvarez stated before playing tonight’s final song, during which Orseno got down into the pit. Before leaving the stage, Alvarez got the entire audience to chant “olé olé olé”, which was random but fun.
At 21:15, it was finally time for the main act of the night, ThxSoMch himself. Before he took to the stage, his band went on first while the fog machines started to fill up the stage. De Fillippis came on, wearing a very silly tank top that said “I pooped today”, and immediately started playing ‘When the Devil Speaks…’. The energy was through the roof right away, but intensified when four songs in, De Fillippis got to ‘Hate.’, which truly seemed to be a fan favourite. De Fillippis himself was also clearly excited, moving across the entirety of the stage and showcasing some funky dance moves. He initiated more mosh pits, but also told the audience that there were a few important rules, like picking one another up and taking care of the girls. De Fillippis continued with ‘Imperfect Girl’, telling the audience “to get a little sexy”, and ‘CAROLINE’, after which a fan gave him some fan art that he really seemed to love. He also took this moment to introduce his band members, who were having some banter on stage.
De Fillippis moved on to ‘Everyone Dies in a Costume’ from his debut album and ‘Swap Places’. Before playing the latter, he told the audience to jump. Unfortunately, he felt like not everyone was jumping, and therefore, he restarted the song halfway through. Of course, that ensured that the second time, everyone did in fact jump. The jumping and moshing never seemed to stop from that point onwards, and became a lot heavier when De Fillippis motioned for his bassist to get into the mosh pit. Unsurprisingly, at the end of the song ‘Bad Dream’, De Fillippis held up a shoe someone in the audience had lost in that same mosh pit. It was quickly returned to its owner, and the show continued with ‘Keep It Tucked’.
During ‘Hide Your Kids’, De Fillippis invited two fans up on stage with him to allow them to crowd dive as soon as the drop hit. This looked really cool right until the fans got towards the back of the room; the show wasn’t sold out, so at some point, there was no one left to carry them anymore. Despite that, they and everyone else were clearly having fun. The final song before the encore would be ‘Crumbled’. De Fillippis motioned for the pit to open up once more. An older man was noticed by the singer, who said something along the lines of “go, Dad, go” as the man danced in the middle of the circle. Of course, the show couldn’t end here, and so after a few seconds off-stage, the singer came back one last time to perform his hit ‘SPIT IN MY FACE!’ as the crowd went wild once more.
