If you haven’t heard of Role Model by now, where have you been? After his breakup with YouTuber Emma Chamberlain, which devastated the internet, Tucker Pillsbury (aka Role Model) released his album Kansas Anymore this past year. With the album’s success, along with his sarcastic TikTok presence, Role Model quickly captured the hearts of teenage audiences. I have been listening to his music for a while now, but with songs like “Frances” and “Sally, When The Wine Runs Out,” he’s gained even more popularity. I was lucky enough to snag tickets to his No Place Like Tour, and I got to see him perform at MGM Music Hall Fenway this past week.
Logistics
The show at MGM Music Hall Fenway was a rescheduled date from March, originally at House of Blues Boston, after Role Model had to cancel due to illness. I found out that the show was postponed as I was driving to the venue, and was devastated to find out. So this time around, I was determined to get to the show and make the most out of it. Getting to Boston from Storrs isn’t the easiest task without a car, but thankfully, my dad lives near Boston and I was able to take his car into the city. I first picked up my friend from Tufts University, and then drove into the city together. A pro-tip for concerts: book parking ahead of time in an app like ParkWhiz or SpotHero to make sure you can secure a spot in a busy area. There was a Red Sox game the same night of the concert, so there was a ton of traffic on the way in. I got a spot in one of the Boston University garages, which was just a short walk from Fenway. The doors for the show opened at 7:00 p.m., and we ended up getting there around 7:30 p.m. Normally, I would recommend getting merch before the show starts for shorter lines, but for this show, the merch line before the show was insanely long. It wrapped around four flights of stairs, and it felt like we were walking forever just to find the end of it. Since we had general admission tickets, we decided to give up on buying merch before the show and tried to get better spots on the floor. This ended up paying off; even though there were a decent number of people already in GA, we got a spot about five or six rows from the front. After the show ended, we made a beeline for the merch table and walked away in less than five minutes.
Opener/Pre-Show
Debbi Dawson was originally supposed to open the show, but after it was rescheduled, the opener was switched to Genevieve Stokes. I thought she was a great opener for this show. Her set had a laid-back, stripped-down vibe that created a great ambiance. Even though I didn’t know much about her before this show, I recognized her song “Habits” from TikTok, and I’ll definitely be adding some of her songs to my playlist! Genevieve came on promptly at 8:00 p.m., and her set lasted around 40 minutes. Based on what I had seen on the internet, I expected Role Model to come on around 9:00 p.m., but he didn’t end up coming on until 9:30 p.m., which meant we waited almost an hour between Genevieve and Role Model’s sets. Usually, I would be more annoyed, but the pre-show playlist they were playing was great. Everyone in the audience was dancing and singing along to Gracie Abrams, Charli XCX, and Sabrina Carpenter. Whoever curated the playlist definitely knew the fans’ music taste. Also, security was passing out free mini water bottles to everyone on the floor, which was awesome, and something I had never seen before at a concert. Other venues — take notes!
SEtlist
Once Role Model took the stage, the energy in the crowd was electric. It’s always surreal to see someone who usually only exists through your headphones right in front of you. He came out wearing a t-shirt that said “child of my mother” — a lyric from his song “The Dinner” — with his signature Brandy Melville long-sleeve underneath. He opened the show with “Writings on the Wall,” the first track from Kansas Anymore. Some of my favorite songs that he played were “The Dinner,” his cover of the 1975’s “Somebody Else,” and “Something, Somehow, Someday.”
In “The Dinner,” the crowd erupted for the line, “I’m the child of my mother, New England born and raised.” Just like in Noah Kahan’s song “Homesick,” there is nothing quite like a New England reference at a New England show — being in a crowd of other New Englanders is a feeling that’s hard to beat. At the end of the song, he smiled and said, “I made it home, baby. I made it home.”
Back in September, Role Model released his Spotify Single cover of “Somebody Else,” and as a fan of The 1975, it quickly became one of my favorite songs. I was so excited to see that it made it onto the setlist. After the song, he jokingly said, “We are The 1965,” a bit he does on the tour introducing himself as random artists.
Originally, his song “Compromise” was on the setlist, but for this show, he replaced it with “Something, Somehow, Someday,” one of my favorite songs on the album. Before starting the song, he admitted that he needed his notebook to read the lyrics because the song has so many of them. At the end, he passed out ripped pages from the notebook to two very lucky fans in the front row.
For every show on the tour, during “Sally, When The Wine Runs Out,” he brings out a friend or a fan from the crowd to be “Sally” and dance with him on stage. I was (delusionally) hopeful that I would be Sally, but he ended up bringing out his mom, which was a sweet moment.
He closed out the show with “Deeply Still in Love,” the perfect song to bring the energy up and close out the final night of his tour.
Final thoughts
As a long-time fan of Role Model, I’m happy that he’s finally getting the flowers he deserves. His playful, charming personality shines throughout his show, and it’s clear that he truly cares about giving his fans the best concert possible. Fan interaction and intimate shows are something that I feel like a lot of artists are starting to lose, but it’s exactly what made this show so special. So, divas, if Role Model announces a second leg of No Place Like Tour, you’ll have to beat me in the Ticketmaster war — because I am definitely eager to go again.