Bleachers @ The Fillmore with Bishop Briggs and Amy Shark.

Text and images by Alicia Kay.

The Bleachers‘ concert at The Fillmore began with an appearance from the adorable Australian singer/songwriter Amy Shark.

She joked that she’s far from home but when the Bleachers call you up to open for them, you immediately hop on a plane to the States. Shark performed singles such as “Golden Fleece,” “Boy Who Spits on Girls,” “Drive you Mad” and “Blood Brothers.”

She impressed the crowd with her angelic voice and poetic lyrics that every person in the audience seemingly could relate to on some level. Shark expressed her love for rapper Eminem by covering his song “Superman.”

Shark shared a story of calling up a boy back when people still used landlines, and his mom picked up, yelling in her heavy Aussie accent, “Joey! There’s an Amy on the phone for you!”

She joked with the audience, saying, “Bitch it’s not an Amy, it’s the Amy.”

After the crowd roared their approval, she said, “And that’s the inspiration for this next song.”

She performed one of her newer songs, “Weekends.” Shark ended her performance with her breakout single, “Adore.”

Next up was British musician Bishop Briggs. Clad in an Adidas track suit and her signature space buns, Briggs opened her set with “Dark Side,“ setting the tone for the show. She continued the show with singles such as “Wild Horses,” “Fire,” “Dead Man’s Arms” and “Hi-Lo.” She ended her set with and wowed the audience with her best known single, “River.” 

Whether it was jumping in place, boxing the air or running back and forth between stage left and stage right, Briggs was a ball of raw energy. It was apparent to the audience that she loves what she does and can’t wait to share it with the world. It was her aura mixed with her strong sound that made her such a great performer.

After such amazing openers, the crowd was pumped and ready for Bleachers.

As the band took their places and the lights went up, the crowd went wild. The spotlight hit lead singer Jack Antonoff on the back of the stage, far from the audience, where he was clad in his iconic bejeweled white suit as seen in the music video for their newest single “Don’t Take the Money.” 

They played their new song, “Goodmorning,” and then continued with classic songs from their 2014 album Strange Desire. At one point, Antonoff instructed everybody to get on their friend’s shoulders and enjoy the concert like they would at a music festival. Bleachers also played songs from their newest album, Gone Now, including “Hate That You Know Me,” “Everybody Lost Somebody,” “Let’s Get Married” and “Foreign Girls.”

About halfway through the performance Antonoff stopped singing and announced to the audience that their drummer had just had a birthday and asked the audience to join him in singing “Happy Birthday,” while the rest of the band members brought out a cake.

Surprisingly enough, that day just happened to be the birthday of a girl in the front row. In a beautiful moment that could only happen at a Bleachers concert, Antonoff heard the girl exclaim it was her birthday and pulled her up onto the stage, gave her a hug and had her blow out the candles. He then handed her the cake and instructed her to bring it back with her and pass it around the audience.

The concert continued while the audience sang along to the next few songs and passed around the cake, taking handfuls, stuffing their faces, and laughing as each person consequently became a mess with frosting on their face and fingers.

Going to a Bleachers concert is an experience all in its own, part of which stems from Antonoff’s love of music. From his instruction to the crowd during “Rollercoaster,” to having riff offs with his fellow band members during the songs, his fun loving attitude made the concert experience so much more beautiful. He was frank with the audience, telling stories about his thought process while writing the songs.

At one point during the concert, Antonoff shushed the audience and had them listen to a low hum, a sound he identified as sad but also comforting. The sound, which comes from a Roland Juno 106 keyboard, was the inspiration for many Bleachers songs. Antonoff explained that he would lock himself in his room, with only that sound playing, and write from the heart.

The songs would sound sad but once the creative genius that is Jack Antonoff added a keyboard, bass, two drums and even a saxophone, the songs became the beautiful and upbeat ones that the audience knew and loved.

Antonoff understands the innate beauty of music and strives with each concert to translate that into a beautiful experience for the audience.

And translate it does.