The Briston Maroney Experience: Sunflower World Tour (Part 1)
By Allyson J.L. Clayton
Photo taken by Allyson Clayton/ Edited by Jackilyn Cooper
March 14th, 2022
We are at Washington Square Park, it is almost noon on a sunny Monday in March. We haven’t slept in at least 24 hours. We drove to Chicago to take a 2 hour flight to NYC just to see Briston Maroney at the Bowery Ballroom. We are reaching a point of delirium…
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If you’ve ever wanted to meet someone who is love and light personified, get yourself to a Briston Maroney concert ASAP and with a quickness! I have never felt so at home at a concert before I started going to Briston & Co. shows and now they’re stuck with me! Sorry, boys!
When we went into the first lockdown, I made the promise to myself that when concerts came back, I would come back full force with them and I would go to as many shows as possible. Concerts are somewhat of a lifeline for me and for so many of my friends and it feels surreal to be back in the action.
What follows in my account of The Sunflower World Tour
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Sept. 12th, 2021
I’m sitting in my car in Dallas, TX preparing to drive upwards of 15hrs over the next day or so and I put on ‘I’m With The Band’ by Pamela Des Barre. I don’t think Miss Pamela got it wrong by sleeping with the guys she idolized but in the context of the puritanical society we have been brought up in, especially in the 60s/70s when women could be used for sex but sure as hell were not allowed to want it or like it, it might not have gotten her exactly what she was craving: closeness that lasts. Intimacy is the whole thing, it’s the point of existence. The ability to connect with other people on a level almost cosmic, is everything I want out of life. And in that respect, live music is a religious experience for me, it feels like coming home.
This week, after holding on by a thread for the past year and a half, we are going to see Briston Maroney. A lot has changed, nothing is the same, and it all feels a little wonky. I just saw Harry Styles in Texas, I barely have any money left and I still have to drive to Illinois to pick up Hailey.
Sept. 14th, 2021–Charlottesville, VA (The Southern)
This feels big. The last time I saw Briston live was October 2019 when he played The Moroccan Lounge in Los Angeles and the crowd was so reverent you could hear a pin drop as he lilted out the notes of “St. Augustine”--no irrelevant chatter as they got drinks from the bar, everyone’s eyes were glued to that stage. It was quite the memory to live up to. We change in the car and walk around in the slightly dizzying humidity until we find the venue. Our vaccination cards are checked at the door, and they are still strongly encouraging masks. We hurry up only to have to wait another hour for the doors to the floor to open. We end up smack dab in the middle of the stage that sits right at shin-level. Savannah Conley opens the show. I knew of Savannah and had sampled some of her songs before but hearing her live is an experience all its own.
It was just Savannah and her guitar as she played a few originals. A voice so earnest and hypnotic, I was immediately enchanted. She jests that even though her songs are quite sad, she is generally a happy person. She teases the crowd with a cover of Arctic Monkeys’ “Do I Wanna Know”, delaying the drop and waiting for all of us to walk into her trap–Alex Turner, who?
At 9 p.m., Briston comes out right on time, even though chants from the crowd have been continuously rising and then fizzling out for the past ten minutes. He’s alone and he excitedly, with a hint of timidity, waves to the crowd and says “What’s up, everybody?” into the microphone. ‘Sunflower’, his debut album, has been out for five months at this point and every single lyric is already cemented in my brain.
Briston and co. take us through the setlist as follows:
Caroline
Bottle Rocket
It’s Still Cool If You Don’t
Deep Sea Diver
Freeway
Fools Gold
The Garden
June
Why
Sinkin’
Rollercoaster
Steve’s First Bruise
I’ve Been Waiting
It’s a stacked setlist, pleasing the crowd with at least one song from every EP, and a good variety from the album. And, of course, to close out the night, the encore, the giant, the most beautiful song in the world–too much?–the moment everyone waits for, “Freakin’ Out On the Interstate”.
After the show, we visit the merch table and say hello to Savannah before we head outside to wait around. After a good thirty minutes, we psych ourselves out and decide to head back to the car. On to the next!
Sept. 15th, 2021–Louisville, KY (Zanzabar)
We drove as long as we could and parked at a rest stop to sleep in the car. Glamour is the name of the game!
As we continue the eight hour journey, we hop from ‘Sunflower’ to ‘Surprise, Surprise’ (Savannah’s most recent EP), only diverging with Taylor Swift’s ‘Reputation’ for a little bit of spice.
We get to the next venue with no time to spare and get straight in line. Kentuckians, seemingly more eager than the concertgoers the night before, force us to accept we won’t be at the front tonight. So, we graciously bow out and dance (like no one is watching, of course), in the back of the venue. And still, we have the time of our lives. We start to catch on to the stage banter both Briston and Savannah have going and it feels like we’re in on the joke. Zack, the twirl-master who often delights us with many-a-crop-top, has just been accepted to Harvard Law! What a feat! Everyone respectfully claps and cheers.
We head to the merch table once again to talk to Savannah, get some signed merch, and get back in the car. Next stop, Columbus, OH (and then,THE WORLD, but mostly, just back home to wait for the next tour).
Sept. 16th, 2021–Columbus, OH (A&R Music Bar)
In Columbus, we decide to get fancy. We book ourselves an airbnb as a little treat, and also so we can take *real* showers. We got to town early enough to chill at a coffee shop, and even have time to spare to stop by the store to pick out some flowers for our faves.
We get dressed up: me, in a sparkly silver romper complete with a neck scarf and a pearl glasses chain, and Hailey, in her ‘MILF’ shirt. (read: Man I Love Frogs). Fashion is the purest form of self-expression!
This show was the rowdiest of them all, and we brought fresh flowers to it! We hid them under the stage in front of our new friends we had just made in the crowd. Like you do at literally any show, we all bonded over our love for…Harry Styles. Briston, too, of course!
It was a whirlwind of a few days, three back-to-back shows and we are already tempted to buy more tickets. We gave Briston his flowers, literally, and made our way to the back so we could sob to “Caroline” with a little more space around us. The song finishes and not two minutes later does Briston come back on stage and proceed to play a brand new song. As if he knew we left the crowd! Despicable, if you ask me! He starts to sing “there it goes/my sudden confidence…” and immediately stops to say,
“uh oh, I’m out of tune…I didn’t f**k up the words, though! That’s good! This is the price I pay for feeling confident. Can I try it again? Is that okay?”
The crowd cheers as if to say, “we would stay here all night and listen to whatever you wanted to say!” Or was that just what I meant with my cheers?
“Guess I’m at it again, another sleepless night….”
Sept. 16th, 2021–Later That Night
As Hailey and I sit in the car in complete silence, decompressing from the events that occurred, she gets on her phone and starts buying more tickets. Luckily for us, the second and third legs of the Sunflower World Tour have already been announced…
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Maybe it’s the atmosphere he intentionally creates, or maybe it’s what the music encourages but the energy at a Briston show really isn’t like any other. While I have made numerous friends at every show I go to, there can definitely be more of an air of competition when it comes to being at other shows. It’s endless comparison and making sure everyone knows just how much of a fan you are. When I go to a Briston show, there is hardly any of that. While I accept this is how it goes as an artist grows, and you can’t fault people for being overzealous, right now we’re in a sweet spot where everyone is here because of the music. And I couldn’t be happier to be here.
To Be Continued…
