As the lights flared at Boston’s cozy House of Blues, out of the fog came Dominic Fike—swaying slightly, but very enthusiastic about the performance that was about to begin. “What’s up Boston? I’m wearing green pants right now. Let’s fucking go!” This somewhat unconventional start opened a concert packed with comical statements, crowd pleasing favorites, and promising new music.
Fike’s Out of Order Tour setlist did not follow a new album as most tours do. Instead, most of the setlist featured old songs. Fan favorites such as Babydoll, Why, 3 Nights, and She Wants My Money were interspersed with slightly lesser known songs, causing the audience to never tire.
Indeed, the energy in the crowd was thrumming no matter what the singer sang or said——and he said many interesting things.
Between songs, his commentary riffed on musicians in the band, and on his own personal drama offstage. Fike’s relationship with Hunter Schafer, his co-star in the Emmy Award-winning series Euphoria, has been in the spotlight since rumors of their relationship first emerged in January. Fike suppressed rumors of a breakup by referencing his “wife” who came with him on tour.“We’ve gotten a lot closer, if you know what I mean,” he said boldly, to the audience’s laughter.
Of course, the centerpiece of the show was the live performance. Despite his exclamation after one song that “I was using autotune for that entire song,” Fike’s natural live voice rivaled his recorded hits. Surprise guitar riffs and unexpected harmonies glittered his performance, as did one soft moment on piano in Rollerblades. The romantic, reflective ballad about young, fleeting love was a high point of the show, as the audience energy shifted around the lyrics: “When I loved your body from your shoulder blades to your rollerblades / And you taught me how to leave the everythings in the moment…When you love somebody but you know it’s only for a moment ‘cause / There’s so many different dimensions but you’re the only one.”
A second tender spotlight on Fike at the piano came later in the show, when he introduced a new unreleased song called Think Fast. Here, Fike’s music talent shone brightly, not only through his piano skills but with an unanticipated spotlight on his falsetto, a contrast to his well-known and well-loved rasp. In that moment, everyone in the audience fell in love.
Fike incorporated all kinds of musical surprises. His openers, a space rock band called BAIRD, slightly shocked the alternative indie audience in their opening act, sporting dinosaur masks and screaming into the mike. But after a few gentler songs, BAIRD proved their promising talent, and Fike even gave their lead guitarist a solo during Vampire, another audience favorite.
Fike himself summarized the concert experience well describing his guitarist: . “Sometimes it pisses me off how talented he is.” Indeed, even as he poked fun at himself and his band members, Fike proved his musical talent with each and every song. As a friend of mine suggested at the end of the night, Fike’s talent combined with his unexpected honesty and the crowd’s dynamic energy made this a concert experience that will be hard to beat.
Gauri Sood ’26 (gaurisood@college.harvard.edu) was sadly not wearing green pants at the concert.