If I were chosen to represent Earth’s live music capabilities to visitors from across the galaxy, I would bring our otherworldly tourists to a Beach Bunny show in a heartbeat. Their show last night at Brooklyn Paramount was perhaps one of the best shows I’ve ever been to—a perfect cap for the first Spring-like week in New York this year. Adding to the excitement around this show was Beach Bunny’s release of their new album, Tunnel Vision, earlier that day.
Given the band’s virality on TikTok, I was expecting a younger crowd. I was pleasantly surprised to find a really diverse set of ages across the room. This makes sense, considering how Beach Bunny has tapped into a timeless indie rock sound that feels as much at home in the ‘90s as it does today. That, and band leader Lili Trifilio’s lyricism about growing up, navigating young love, and figuring out adulthood, is something everyone has gone through, is currently going through, or will be something that the younger children in the audience will eventually experience.
Everything about this show was just pure fun, and the audience was into it the from the start. More people than usual showing up early for the first opener, Jayla Kai, a Woodstock native who had a good few folks in the audience singing along, including her grandfather, who even joined us in the photo pit to take some pictures. Following her was Pool Kids, who immediately started jumping around the stage and filling the room in a way that I could’ve been convinced they were the headliner. During their set, the crowd started moshing and about ten people had short-lived crowdsurfing moments.
The energy in the venue was about to spill out of the proverbial jar as we were waiting for Beach Bunny. I knew there was something special and different about this show when one of the people at the barricade gave me my first-ever concert friendship bracelet moments before the lights dimmed. As the band took the stage, the crowd erupted. Immediately, people were crowd-surfing, and security was fighting to pull them down. As I hopped around the venue getting pictures, people of all ages were singing along to every word and dancing in their bunny ears as the band played through their repertoire of songs, sounding as clean and tight as ever.
Trifilio commanded the stage expertly, instructing the crowd multiple times to set up for a mosh pit, which culminated in the entire venue splitting down the middle during the final song of the encore, “Painkiller,” with everyone then rushing into the middle to jump and dance around in what can only be described as an outright dance party, complete with local New York artist Hank Heaven making a guest appearance onstage for an impromptu juggling act.
It was the kind of fun and excitement at a show that I haven’t experienced in quite a while, and was a fantastic way to celebrate the Tunnel Vision era of Beach Bunny.
photos and words by Bobby Nicholas lll
Order tickets for Beach Bunny HERE
