Role Model Rocks The Forum: Fans Go Wild for Tucker Pillsbury's Australian Debut

Photographs by Sara Regan

This has to be one of the BEST gigs I’ve been to in the past year. Tucker Pillsbury aka Role Model, made his Australian debut last week with a sold out tour across the nation. 

After seeing hundreds of videos from his shows prior in Auckland, Brisbane and Sydney, you couldn’t help but count down the minutes to seeing him live when he graced the stage at the Forum on Saturday night. 

Upon arriving at the venue, fans lined up around the block. Various people interviewed the die-hard fans about why they love Tucker, making some questionably funny signs and adding notes of red gingham to their outfits wherever possible. 

I’m not going to lie. Before entering the venue, I thought I was going to be one of the older people in the crowd. However, I was proven wrong. Girls, gays, and anyone in between were coming from far and wide to see Role Model live for the first time. From the beginning of the evening, when Medium Build serenaded us with his incredible talent (just using his hit guitar and voice), the crowd was collectively in awe and excited for the evening ahead. 

As soon as Tucker took the stage, the Forum went off. Beginning with ‘Writings On The Wall’, the crowd yelled each lyric, word for word, right back at the singer/songwriter, and you could tell that he was overwhelmed by the love he was receiving. From there, I knew we were in for one hell of a night. 

If you’re a true Role Model fan, then you probably know about his alter egos Sabrina Carpenter, The 1965, Ed Sheeran, Maroon 5 and Saint Laurent Cowboy (just to name a few). Only a few songs in, the crowd was singing ‘Espresso’ to him, with the hopes of him joining in, and when he did, everyone died (including me). Tucker also made sure to pay attention to some of the unhinged signs floating throughout the room, where some even prompted an early yet epic Jonas Brothers soundtracked encore. 

For the rest of the evening, we were treated to some of our favourites like ‘Look At That Woman’, ‘The Dinner’, ‘Slipfast’ as well as ‘Sally, When The Wine Runs Out’ from the upcoming deluxe album (release date couldn’t come fast enough). And despite only having teased it in the last week, most of us already knew all of the words and are DYING to have it ready to press play on our playlists. 

Overall, fans couldn’t put into words how great the evening was. After waiting up to 6 years to see Role Model live, the show was everything we had hoped for and more. Tucker, come back to Australia already, we miss you! 

Since the show, he has announced the deluxe album ‘Kansas Anymore (The Longest Goodbye)’ which you can pre-save the album here out February 14th.