Role Model "No Place Like Tour" - Dallas & Austin

March 4th, 2025

We are back!! This year's winter concert drought has been drier than most. I have not been to a show since Taylor Swift at the end of October, which is probably the longest stretch I've gone without a show since Covid hit. There just weren't many artists touring near me during that time. I had a couple loose plans to go to smaller shows throughout November-February but they all fell through, so I was really geared up for this short run of Role Model tour dates with some of my best friends!

February 28th, 2025

I attended the Dallas date after work on a Thursday with Elli, my youngest sister, and two of our friends, Mia and Lorna. I have been to so many shows with all three of them at this point, so we planned for this one to be a fun back-of-the-pit experience for all of us. I did not expect to see the House of Blues as full as I've ever seen it. I have been to sold out shows in the Foundation room before, but I have never seen it so packed that you could not move around all the way back by the sound booth.

Role Model has had a few little spikes in his career, getting spurts of popularity online for songs or music videos in the past, but this album rollout has clearly been his most widely anticipated. This era of his music is a big aesthetic and genre switch from most of his previous work, which I think caught the attention of a lot of people who were not paying much attention before. I will say I am somewhat of a newer fan of his, and this was the first album release of his that I was waiting up to listen to. Though I definitely have a soft spot for a lot of his older music, Kansas Anymore is definitely the most up my alley as far as genre, theme, and just the general vibe of the music. 

It's been a pretty steady joke that this is his "country album," (though it is probably more indie-folk or indie-pop than anything else). I haven't been to a smaller show with such a specific, niche dress code to it in quite a while. I love a theme, for any occasion, and I love to dress up for shows, so this was something I really enjoyed partaking in. It was a lot of denim, vests, checkered boxer or bloomer shorts, Dorothy dresses, red shoes, white lace tops, and cowboy boots. I typically like to be wearing something comfortable that still makes me feel cool, and I found that pretty easily achievable with this crowd for both shows... and I will take any excuse to wear my red cowboy boots out of the house.

We danced (in very close quarters) in the back of the House of Blues in Dallas and got Jake Shane a.k.a. "Octopusslover8" as our "Sally" for the infamous "Sally When the Wine Runs Out" performance that night. This is one of those things that you just kind of have to already know what I'm talking about in advance, because any kind of explanation I could give would fall short of conveying how insane that really was without some prior knowledge of who these people are. My short and simple explanation for those of you who aren't chronically online (congratulations? or maybe I'm sorry? not sure)... but Jake Shane is an influencer known for being hilarious on Tiktok and on his podcast, Therapuss, which Tucker has been featured on a couple of times now. Jake Shane is currently touring himself and happened to be in Dallas the night of the Role Model show, so he came on stage to dance for the bridge of Tucker's most recent hit song off of his newly released deluxe album. Regardless of how much of this "lore" you really know, this was an entertaining watch for anyone in the crowd because of the instant energy spike in the room. That moment was definitely the highlight of the Dallas show for me.

Even the back of the pit at House of Blues is still a pretty decent place to be, though I would not recommend standing behind the tallest dude in the crowd if you are planning on seeing anything other than the back of someone's head. (And though we know better... it still happens to the best of us. RIP me and Elli's view for a good portion of the night). We had to make several adjustments throughout the night to make room for ourselves in there, but I think all four of us wound up happy with where we were and how the concert went.

March 2nd, 2025

For the Austin show, I had a VIP ticket to attend with Mia, Lorna, and Bianca. My other sister Bryna was also at the show, she just attended with her roommate with a general admission ticket, so we talked to them in line and then did not see much of them inside, but this was another group of friends I've gone all-out at a concert with in the past.

I will admit the camping situation for this tour is out of control. There have been people lining up at insane hours, and in order to get front row, it was pretty much required for us to do the same. I don't feel the need to be barricade for every show I go to (because that would be both unnecessary and ridiculous with how often I attend a concert), but we did unanimously decide we thought it'd be worth it to power through for this one, and I have to say it was. Most of the fans in line were pleasant to spend my day with, and though there were a few earlier issues with people trying to be sneaky when they shouldn't have been, everything worked out the way it was supposed to. 

I loved seeing friends I haven't seen in a while and meeting new people! There were a lot of people with similar tastes in music around us, so it was fun to listen to people talk about previous and upcoming shows on their rosters for the year. I love going to shows and running into the same few people every time, and I feel like I added a few more girls to my growing list at this show.

Of course, Role Model himself was amazing. Before these few shows, I had only seen him open for Gracie Abrams in the past, so it was incredible to be able to see him up close with some of my friends who probably (definitely) love him harder than I do. 

I never think it's embarrassing to be a new fan of something. I don't think it ever should be, either. I feel like this newer wave of "fangirl culture" post-covid makes people think being a new fan makes you undeserving of "big fan" experiences in some way, but that shouldn't matter. If you are genuinely seeking new music and you find something you really enjoy, you should not be shamed out of enjoying new things. I don't think the amount of time you've spent loving an artist or a piece of work automatically makes it more important to you than it is to anyone else. I think it can make you a bigger fan, but I also don't see why that matters in the grand scheme of things. This is just another one of my let people enjoy things rants, but I stand by it!

March 5th, 2025

I loved getting to see Tucker with my people who introduced me to his music to begin with. It made it much more special for me and my friends, and two days later, I am still sore and bruised from going hard in the front row. I have only been tuned in for about a year and a half, and this being my first experience with an album release and a tour from Role Model made these shows so much more awesome for me. He's an incredible performer, he's hilarious, and he seems to be genuinely loving this tour as much as we are. I think it's rare to see an artist that truly loves to tour and see a crowd the way that Tucker does, and I find it incredibly admirable that he's been able to thrive and enjoy playing such a personal album to so many people every single night. It's not often that you find someone passionate about all parts of being an artist, but I think Tucker is just that. I loved these shows and I love this tour!

My personal "concert season" is about to pick up quite a bit in the next few weeks, and I couldn't have imagined a better start to the run for the year. I fell off of writing about these kinds of things towards the end of the year last year (because I've been writing some other things...) but I enjoyed writing this post and I'm excited to write about my next few shows, too.

My Inhaler bender is soon after two years of waiting... So stay tuned for all of that chaos, because we all know it will be many shades of chaos. It's gonna be good!!