Fitz and The Tantrums - 2022 Movin’ On Performance Review
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Fitz and the Tantrums were the third act to take the stage at Movin’ On Festival this Friday, April 29. Though many students were not familiar with the alternative/indie band, Fitz and the Tantrums had no problem bringing copious amounts of energy to the stage for their 13-song set.
Kicking off with two of their lesser-known songs, “OCD” and “Sparks”, the band was off to a slow start before growing comfortable with their audience. It was not until the third song of the set, “Out of my League”, that the energy in the crowd shifted and fans began to realize their familiarity with the song and the band.
Immediately before starting the song, lead singers Michael Fitzpatrick and Noelle Scaggs asked the crowd to make heart shapes with their hands and hold them up above their heads. As the band performed “Out of my League”, it was impossible not to sing along or dance like no one was watching.
Riding off the energy from the previous song, Fitzpatrick reminded his audience that classes were over and continued his set with “Livin’ for the Weekend” and “Fool”.
As the set continued, there was certainly a lack of knowledge from the crowd during the band’s less popular music, but the clear enthusiasm from Fitzpatrick and Scaggs made the performance exciting.
Additionally, despite the lack of knowledge of the music that was being performed, the energy in the crowd never dropped once it peaked. The band demonstrated enough vivacity in between and during their less popular songs that audience members could enjoy their performance without full-blown knowledge of the band's discography.
While it was certainly more fun and easy to be engaged during performances of songs like “HandClap” and “I Just Wanna Shine”, many of the songs had similar energies and beats to these, which made them feel familiar enough to dance to.
Fitzpatrick was also sure to include the crowd when talking between sets, telling backstories for a few songs, asking if anyone else was a “mama’s boy” and even doing a “We Are” chant before closing with the band’s third-most streamed song on Spotify, “The Walker”.
While the band certainly had the disadvantage of being a group whose songs are known but not associated with the band themself, Fitz and the Tantrums put on an impressive performance and knew how to transfer the energy from their more popular songs to songs that are not as well-known.
It was obvious that many members of the audience were not aware of how well they knew the band until they were performing their most popular songs.
Despite this disadvantage, Fitz and the Tantrums had an excellent presence on stage and based on how much fun the band was having, an onlooker would never guess that the band was not performing at one of their concerts.
Rating: 4/5
Rachel Newnam is a first-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact her, email ren5102@psu.edu
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Rachel Newnam
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