Earlier this year Jeremy Zucker released his third studio album “Garden State”, which in my opinion was his best body of work yet. It was a cohesive exploration of his childhood, relationships and life, with some of his most introspective songwriting yet. I was excited to see how he brought it to the live stage in his “Welcome To the Garden State Tour” as the record to me feels like something too listen to from start to finish. 

With the relaxed Sunday evening Brisbane crowd making their way into The Tivoli during the openers Chloe Parche and Jack Gray, they were excited and ready for the arrival of Jeremy Zucker. Opening the show with “hometown” and “i don’t know you” from the new record, the singalong’s were immediately ignited. He then went into some older material with songs like “18”, “all the kids are depressed”, “lakehouse”, “comethru”, “julia”, and “somebody loves you”. 

Over the past couple of years Jeremy has had a lot of success with his collaborative series “Brent” with Chelsea Cutler, and he treated the Brisbane crowd with a few songs from that project including “better off”, “you were good to me”, and “this is how you fall in love”. The latter two aren’t always one’s he performs live on this tour, so it felt super special that he brought them both out for this particular show. 

Returning to the new album he played “splinter”, “time zones”, “pretty fucking tight” and the title track “garden state” which all felt like genuine highlights in the set. Each of these songs felt like they were written with the live show in mind, specifically “splinter” which provided a whole new perspective in the live show context. Closing out the show with “not ur friend”, “Therapist”, my personal favourite from the new album “natural disaster”, and the Jeremy classic “supercuts”, he gave Brisbane a big rockstar finish. 

The near 2 hour show was intimate, powerful and comforting. The vulnerable moments were as special as the big rockstar energy ones, and he proved that he really can do everything.