For an artist who just released his first EP in two years, ROLE MODEL already knows how to draw a crowd. 21-year-old musician Tucker Pillsbury, known by his stage name ROLE MODEL, kicked off his Far from Perfect Tour in Portland on the 13th with a packed house.
Opening with fan-favorite (ironically) titled “not a fan”, a song that has garnered over five million streams on Spotify. Pillsbury made sure to begin with a song that would captivate the audience as soon as he came on stage. Pillsbury’s past experience in live performances only includes opening for Omar Apollo last Spring during his Voyager Tour. What does that mean, exactly? That this is was the first show of ROLE MODEL’s first headlining tour, and you could tell from his excitement. From his performance? You would have never known. Pillsbury sang with the passion and crowd response of any artist embarking on their third or fourth tour. The only way to be able to tell would be from his continued disbelief that the crowd knew all the songs from his EP, oh, how perfect, that was released the night before (it was actually really cute). This is just a sliver of the commitment from his fans showed throughout the show, calling him by name to show their love and appreciation and showing up astronomically earlier than most do to this specific venue.
ROLE MODEL took this energy and fed off of it. He did everything from taking pictures with fans’ phones and holding their hands, to part the crowd like the Red Sea and jumping in during the playing of his last song, “thank you for coming”. In a venue notoriously known for its low blue lights, this tour team brought the heat. Whoever the light technician is for this tour, your work is not going unnoticed. Providing a wide array of colors and spotlight projections, and most importantly lighting up the musician, the lighting helped create the atmosphere for the performance that anything can (and will) happen.
Speaking of which, have I mentioned his opener? Going by the name of Mills. (yes, the period is intentional, what about it?), the singer/songwriter brought the Southern charm to his early crowd and lit up the stage all on his own. He offered photos by the merch booth after his set and quickly gathered a crowd of new fans who were eager to meet him. His calm demeanor never let on that this was his first time going on tour, ever. Who knows what they’re teaching these new artists in Los Angeles, but their confidence level on stage only improves with every performance. With the crowd control skills he showed off during his up-and-coming track, “Water”, it is obvious that both of these musicians have successful careers ahead of them.
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Role Model
Mills
By: CJ Hueso | Exclusively for @Music, Why Not!
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