ROLE MODEL goes up a level at Birmingham’s O2 Institute
The American continued the UK leg of his tour in Birmingham.
Photo: ROLE MODEL
Having last played the downstairs room in the O2 Institute two years ago, last night saw ROLE MODEL — aka Tucker Pillsbury (or saintlaurentcowboy for those clued-up) — upgrade a level to the upstairs room, complete with an overlooking balcony and a room well-lit enough for the American to get a good glance at the audience’s adoring faces.
Wasting absolutely no time at all, the musician walked on stage in complete darkness, before the first beat of Writing’s On The Wall got the audience screaming in unison and my Apple Watch sending me decibel warnings. In the grand scheme of things, Tucker couldn’t have chosen a better setlist: he effortlessly drifted into Look At That Woman, playing his acoustic guitar like a Ken doll that came complete with campfire and guitar, with a huge grin on his face as his eyes drifted around signs held up in the crowd.
He challenged the audience to be better than the first night of tour — Dublin — and the sold-out room did just that, screaming at him when he complained about the UK’s lack of shouting expletives at him in between songs.
Without stopping for too long, the singer-songwriter went through songs off his second album, Kansas Anymore, but also paid dues to older tracks that first put him on the map: a little more time, notice me, that’s just how it goes, blind and one of his, as a girl kindly pointed out in the crowd, “big TikTok hits”, forever&more.
This was a testament to how far he’s come sonically, not just in popularity or how he’s used TikTok in the most proficient way possible, but also showing his development musically and lyrically.
In between funny moments and receiving yellow roses on stage as well as numerous other free gifts, he jumped and strummed his way through Superglue, The Dinner, Frances and did the ultimate crowd pleaser: a cover of The 1975’s Somebody Else, which he released as a Spotify Single back in September after high demand.
With each new introduction he became a different person, all part of his ‘lore’, if you will: Sabrina Carpenter (he also performed his viral acapella version of Espresso for a brief moment), Inhaler, 5 Seconds of Summer and Harry Styles, never actually introducing himself as ROLE MODEL. His sense of humour didn’t go unnoticed and was widely reciprocated by the 100s of adoring fans staring back at him, many of whom had made their own merch, drawing on t-shirts or designing bracelets (one lucky fan got to trade her bracelet for his setlist), and all as creative as each other.
After taking it in a solemn direction with Compromise, Tucker let the crowd know there would be two songs left of his one-hour set, and the whole audience tried to guess just which two they’d be. Ending on blind from his 2020 EP our little angel and popular track forever&more from his first album, rx, he sauntered off stage but wasn’t quite done.
Without so much as exiting the stage, he’d already run back to his spot for the night and burst into 2024 hit Deeply Still In Love, a telling song on heartbreak that was the perfect send-off for a well-orchestrated night. If this performance was anything to go by, it’s clear that the room was far too small for someone of Tucker’s popularity, so I’m sure everyone in attendance knew it would be the last time we’d see him in such an intimate setting.
Funny, charming and a natural performer, ROLE MODEL commanded the stage as if born to perform.