I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED: February 28, 2025] Father John Misty

Back in 2016, while touring his second album, Father John Misty played XPNFest.  I had been planning on going that day but for some reason couldn’t make it.  He wasn’t the only person I wanted to see, but I was interested in seeing him for sure.  And that’s the year that he had what I guess was a breakdown on stage.  As one person on reddit said

People came to see FJM and he gave them a 20 minute set without even playing a single song of his because what…it’s part of his “character”?

So I’ve been kind of against him since (I held the grudge a lot longer than WXPN did since they play his music all the time–and I know it’s stupid to hold a grudge since I wasn’t even there, but whatever).  The grudge finally ended this year with his great new album.  We enjoyed the new songs so much that we decided to see him at the Fillmore

Sadly, we arrived quite late.  Actually it wasn’t even that late–quite long before Destroyer went on.  But it was packed and we were very far back. I had no idea he would be that popular (or that the show would sell out).  The one fun thing is that I ran into an old school friend Susie and it was great seeing her and catching up with her.

After Destroyer, the crowd adjusted and damnit I was behind a tall dude for a bunch of the set.

I really liked his first two albums.  I grew a little tired of him for a while, but still enjoyed the singles that came later.

But I was super excited that he opened the show with a song from his debut Funtimes in Babylon.  Unlike Destroyer FJM had a large band (7 or 8 people behind him–piano, drums, violin, guitars, bass and a sax).  For most of the songs FJM played acoustic guitar.  Some of the songs were stripped down while others grew huge by the end.

I was quite surprised that he played “I Guess Time Just Makes Fools of Us All” second–it’s a huge hit on WXPN these days.  But it really brought the room to life with its slinky melodies and catchy horns.

Father John Misty loves his self-referential jokes, like using his real name in a bunch of songs like Josh Tillman and the Accidental Dose, which is a new song and is great with slightly askew melodies on piano and strings and Mr. Tillman, and older song that is wry and amusing and mentions Philly, so the crowd went pretty crazy.  This song is really amusing given that it puts Tillman in a pretty bad light.

And then he played Nancy from Now On, one of my favorite songs from his debut.  It sounded great–his voice is fantastic–and the largeish band captured the swelling sounds perfectly.

On stage, I guess he is in character–in a suit, crazy beard.  He danced around the stage from time to time and made some jokes.

I don’t think I knew anything from his 2022 orchestral album.  They played 2 songs from it Q4 and Goodbye Mr Blue.  I didn’t know the first song but I did know the second one (he asked if they should play a banger, and instead they played this song about a dead cat.

Then in the middle show I had a bit of Father John Misty fatigue.  I found this to be the case when listening to his third album.  The lyrics are fun but the arrangements are kind of slow and uneventful.  So two songs in a row that I didn’t know and then later four songs in a row from the new album were a but rough (especially when it hurts to stand).

But he broke up the unknown songs with the asskicking She Cleans Up–loud and boisterous, it got the whole crowd moving and singing along.  I didn’t know Screamland, but the song got so huge with the lights playing a huge part in the enormity of the feeling.

Things slowed down quite a lot for the final three songs, none of which I knew.  I grew a little restless, although I did enjoy the overall vibe and swelling of Mahashmashana, which has a great sing along ending.

After a brief encore break, in which I was feeling the aches of standing for a while, he made my night by playing I’m Writing a Novel, my favorite song of his.  They followed it up with Chateau Lobby #4 (in C for Two Virgins) a super fun song from I Love You Honeybear.  i don’t recall if they stretched out So I’m Growing Old on Magic Mountain to its full nine minutes, but they followed it up with the super fun I Love You Honeybear, which was a delightful ending to the set.

There were so remarkably drunk people by us–talking really loudly during quiet parts and then screaming with excitement during the songs they knew.  Someone finally said something to them after a while, but it didn’t do much good.  This is the problem with being way in the back (although, honestly people like that are littered throughout shows sometimes).

So I enjoyed FJM quite a lot.  As with the album, some parts felt too long, but the overall good vibes won out.

ϖ Mahashmashana (2024)
ë Chloë and the Next 20th Century (2022)
$ God’s Favorite Customer (2018)
ψ Pure Comedy (2017)
♥ I Love You, Honeybear (2015)
∉ Fear Fun (2012)