This is Josh Tillman’s debut at the Royal Albert Hall – or, as he tells the audience, the first time he’s ever even been in a room this distinguished – but it feels like the venue that Father John Misty was born to play. Ever since Tillman recorded Fear Fun as Father John Misty in 2012, he has perfected the art of the opulent confessional – part folk, part cabaret – that feels tailor-made for the interior of the Albert Hall, a womb designed by Fabergé.
And Tillman is in exquisite form as he brings his Mahashmashana tour to the UK. Backed by a fantastic seven-piece band, plus his own occasional contributions on acoustic, Tillman plays every song from his 2024 album, interspersed with select additions from a strong catalogue. Although Tillman jokes about the nature of his material – “here’s yet another beautiful ballad about getting gaslight by capitalism” he says, eyebrows raised, before “Mahashmashana” – he also shows a range that takes in country weepers and epic pop, opening with two from the new album: the gorgeous slow “I Guess Time Just Makes Fools Of Us All”, followed by the poppier “Josh Tillman And The Accidental Dose”.
The latter is one of the joke-filled character-led songs that Tillman delivers like a singing stand-up, complete with hand gestures, exaggerated facial expressions, clever intonation and perfect comic timing. These songs are very funny and wonderfully performed, bringing out the drama student in Tillman. He treats us to a bunch of them, including “Mr Tillman” and “The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apt”. They all feature in the first half of the set alongside fan favourite “Nancy From Now On”, the beautiful “God’s Favorite Customer” and two crackers from 2022’s Chloe And The Next Twentieth Century, “Goodbye Mr Blue” and “Q4”.
The “Tillman” songs tend to relate, in painful detail, nocturnal adventures, where our unreliable narrator’s behaviour may have been less than ideal, but his fellow adventurers deserve everything they get. They are funny but a little cruel, combining lacerating introspection with sweeping generalisations, a bit like diary entries that continue to be read years after the event. That’s a problem he acknowledges before “Nothing Good Ever Happens At The Goddamn Thirsty Crow” from 2015’s I Love You, Honeybear, which he described as written by “a precocious 33-year-old and therefore increasingly unattractive to perform in public”. That doesn’t mean he holds back any, instead taking the performance up a notch until he hits a point that’s one level of camp below Elvis in Vegas.
The audience love it, and he could have set himself trap, but Tillman knows exactly what’s he doing. He uses that as a springboard, launching into a barrage of songs from the new album, cleverly showcasing the increased depth and maturity of his more recent work as well as his exceptional vocal range. The mutant funk of “She Cleans Up” is electrifying, and it’s followed by the contemporary pop sheen of “Screamland”, with dramatic lighting and a huge sound that reverberates around the bowl. These are very good songs on record, but outstanding live. He then abruptly switches moods, taking the elegiac “Summer’s Gone” almost as a solo, accompanied only by piano. Bathed in a spotlight, Tillmann could be Sinatra or Piaf, and it’s a different kind of drama to the two preceding songs – one that earns a standing ovation. The set closes with two exhausting, exhilarating epics from the new record, “Mental Health” and “Mahashmashana”.
How to follow that? Tillman emerges for the encore a little overwhelmed by the response. Perfect love song “Chateau Lobby” goes down very well, which Tillman follows with two bleaker numbers – “Holy Shit” and “…Magic Mountain”, the latter acknowledged as “yet another interminable meditation on aging”. The audience doesn’t seem to mind, particularly when he closes with the ecstatic “I Love You, Honeybear”, a song about holding on to love in the apocalyptic end-times that Father John Misty was created to score.
Father John Misty setlist, Royal Albert Hall, London, April 15, 2025:
I Guess Time Just Makes Fools Of Us All
Josh Tillman And The Accidental Dose
Q4
Being You
The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apt
Mr Tillman
Goodbye Mr Blue
Nancy From Now On
Disappointed Diamonds Are The Rarest of Them All
God’s Favorite Customer
Nothing Good Ever Happens At The Goddamn Thirsty Crow
She Cleans Up
Screamland
Summer’s Gone
Mental Health
Mahashmashana
ENCORE
Chateau Lobby #4 (In C For Two Virgins)
So I’m Growing Old On Magic Mountain
Holy Shit
I Love You, Honeybear
