Bleachers - A Show That Felt Like Coming Home

Edith D Turner

When I stepped into the Kentish Town Forum for the opening night of Bleachers ‘from the studio to the stage’ UK leg of the tour, I didn’t know what to expect. I was thrown by the demographic being far beyond what I thought it would be.

I think I've made a habit of going to gigs and expecting the crowd to just be a reflection of me and my people. I often forget that music, and artists, exist beyond my sphere, and live in so many different realms scattered all over the world. That was kind of my experience at this show. For me, Jack Antonoff came into my life after having been a long-time Swiftie who wanted to know more about who produced her stuff. But for other people, he is Antonoff from anything from ‘fun.’, or ‘Steel Train’, to Lana, or even just Jack from Bleachers.

It took all of three seconds for me to become completely entranced by what he does, and fell down an Antonoff-shaped rabbit hole which quickly led me to Bleachers in 2019. Anyone who knew me in 2020 will tell you that Jack Antonoff and Bleachers were the most joyous part of my life in a time that was beyond weird for everyone. I knew every word to every song SO quickly. I was completely hooked on what they were doing, and bewildered by his genius. That’s what he is, there’s no doubt about it, and he takes that genius from the studio straight to the stage in a way I don’t think I’ve really experienced at a show before. Through a perfect setlist, we saw a man who was exercising this genius in every way. I was completely in awe of him as he performed with his bandmates (who are just as magic as he is), as well as when he took time to talk about his Juno 6 Synth which offers a ‘triumphant’ yet ominous sound which Jack feels captures the essence of Bleachers perfectly. He’s someone who is desperate to connect and break down the wall between artist and fan because he recognises that this is a group effort. We do not exist without each other, and it is so important to acknowledge that.

I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t felt slightly underwhelmed by the recently released 4th self-titled album, ‘Bleachers’. It goes without saying that there are some stand-out moments; ‘Tiny Moves’ is without a doubt one of my songs of 2024 already, and ‘Alma Mater’ is the most perfect collection of words and melody. But for the most part, everything kind of blurs into one for me. With that in mind, I was worried about how songs would translate to the stage, and how I would feel listening to a set which would inevitably be filled with songs I wasn’t super jazzed about. But oh my goodness how that changed the second they walked on stage. 

Jack Antonoff is easily one of the most influential people in my life. He has informed my music knowledge and sat behind some of the most important songs to me. The work he has done, in my mind, is incomparable. My life, thus far, has been soundtracked almost completely by Antonoff, so to see him in a venue I love, surrounded by people who feel the same way I do was already a dream. But the second they started playing, (opening with ‘I Am Right On Time’) all of my worries melted away into a world so far from where I was. 

It immediately felt like a family reunion, full of people I’ve known in lives gone by and have waited and hoped to see again - a feeling which had not been felt five minutes before they started. I think it’s because you can tell that they all love each other so much, and that comes through in everything they do. They all put their all into playing with as much heart as they can possibly wrangle, and it makes everyone watching feel so alive. There is no way to describe what you see on that stage other than warmth, and no way to describe how you feel as you watch it other than safe. I know it’s cliche to say that you’re supposed to dance like no one’s watching, or other things in that vein, but being at a Bleachers show makes you feel like that. It’s so empowering to watch people who love each other and care about what they do so much that they make you feel that way, despite anything else you may be going through. 

In a way, it kind of felt like we shouldn’t have been there, and I mean that in the best way. While playing ‘Still A Mystery’, Jack introduced the whole band and conducted them somewhat for a good five minutes. It was like watching them in a rehearsal or a soundcheck, or even just them playing and jamming together because that’s what they love. What I mean to say is that it didn’t seem to matter to them that they were playing a sold-out night at the Forum - they were playing as they would on any day, in any situation - just for the pure love of it. 

It is clear that Jack cares so much. He notes that there are two kinds of people in this world, those who ‘get’ Bleachers, and those who don’t, and repeats over and over how lucky he feels to have found us, and us them. I feel this way too. It feels like what we experienced in that room was always meant to happen. It felt like coming home.