The honeymoon continued between Beach Bunny and its growing audience at the group’s hometown Metro show on Saturday, with the Chicago pop band giving fans early and new alike plenty of reasons to feel smitten. While the sold-out concert served to launch the tour in support of the newly released debut full-length, “Honeymoon,” the set was as much a well-deserved victory lap as it was a display of the young band’s promise and resonance.
Singer/songwriter/guitarist Lili Trifilio first began putting out solo music under the Beach Bunny moniker in 2015, self-releasing lo-fi bedroom recordings that earnestly dealt in heartbreak. She eventually recruited bandmates to compete in a battle of the bands, and the group includes the adept instrumentalists Matt Henkels (guitar), Jon Alvarado (drums) and Anthony Vaccaro (bass). Beach Bunny didn’t win that competition, but the group, resolved, continued performing, recording and building a devoted fanbase. Last year, “Prom Queen,” the title track from the 2018 EP of the same name, went viral. A takedown on impossible, unfair beauty standards, the song has amassed millions of streams and made the Billboard Hot Rocks chart. Beach Bunny has played Lollapalooza, Riot Fest and scored a spot on the lineup for Coachella in April, all before dropping a debut album.
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At Metro, the band showcased what makes it so indelibly endearing. While Trifilio’s open-hearted lyrics addressed longing, anguish, anxiety and self-doubt, they were also bathed in cathartic, shout-along refrains and buoyant melodies. Devoid of cynicism, its youthful optimism was feel-good, even when picking up the shards of a freshly broken heart.
They particularly excelled in expressing the in-between emotions that plague the confusing moments between still crushing-out and moving on. Songs, including opener “Promises,” “Cuffing Season” and “Rearview” highlighted Trifilio’s tender, lilting vocals as they reached a crescendo alongside the band’s building, revved-up melodies and rhythms as her voice rose to a bellow to hone in on where the pain still resides. “Part of me still wants you / Part of me wants to fall asleep … Part of me still hates you” she belted on “Promises,” as a mosh pit broke out on the floor, which continued throughout the entirety of the hour-long set. “You love me / I love you / You don’t love me anymore, I still do,” she sang on “Rearview,” rising to her toes for further emphasis.
Beach Bunny played “Honeymoon” in sequence, only skipping “Racetrack,” the band’s confidence in its new material giddily met by a crowd that bounced, surfed, sang along and clung to every word. The second half of the set was rounded out with back catalog favorites, such as the vulnerable “6 Weeks” and exuberant “Boys.” Beach Bunny closed the night with “Prom Queen” and the surging “Painkiller,” a cathartic one-two punch to cap off an exhilarating set.
Althea Legaspi is a freelance writer.
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