It’s a ‘party in the u.s.a.’ on grace enger’s ‘it’s so fun’ tour

SANTA ANA, California —  Alternative pop artist Grace Enger encouraged fans to curse out a fan’s ex-girlfriend during the final night of the “It’s so fun” tour at the Constellation Room on March 21. 

Enger closed out her first headline tour in Santa Ana with technical difficulties, impromptu performances, and accidentally hitting her guitarist in the face. 

The “It’s so fun” tour created a sense of intimacy during shows as Enger continued to share personal stories and interacted with fans while asking questions about their exes and previous experiences in relationships.

“Who here has had something ruined for them by someone,” Enger asked, as she introduced her song “Ruin.” 

Her band members Andrew Wholf, guitar, and Sierra Leuschen, drums, were asked to leave the stage as she performed a short solo acoustic set. 

“Anyone miss their ex,” Enger asked as the band left the stage, to subtly introduce her next song “imytn,” an acronym for “I miss you tonight.” 

She then picked an audience member to answer the question and “Yes, I do,” was the answer. 

Enger then responded with, “This is usually the part in the set where someone tells me a crazy story about their ex,” and moved on to a screaming fan who shared that her ex-girlfriend had cheated on her. 

Enger endorsed the crowd to yell “Fuck Brianna,” in solidarity of her fan that got cheated on.

Opener Jake Minch joined Enger on stage to share a mic and perform their collaborative track “Good Stuff.” 

She then talked about how she wrote her song “20” when she was 19 and felt like decades were daunting, while dedicating the song to a fan who was celebrating her birthday that day.

“I don’t remember feeling like this when I was 10, though,” Enger said while laughing.

She attempted to introduce her next song, only to be surprised as her microphone began to cut out.

As the crew scrambled to fix the microphone, Wholf began an impromptu session of “Party in the U.S.A.” by Miley Cyrus and the crowd cheered and began to sing along immediately.

It began to work properly and Enger joined the crowd to continue the song, only to result in the microphone cutting out again.

“And the mic’s still broken,” Enger said while laughing. 

After her cover of “Sally, When The Wine Runs Out,” by ROLE MODEL where she prompted the crowd to applaud guitarist Michael Andrew, only to end up accidentally hitting him in the face. 

It wouldn’t be an efficient tour recap without mentioning Minch’s overall performance as an opener. 

Without any introduction, the conversations in the Constellation room came to an abrupt stop as Minch took the stage and went straight into his first song of the night, “strip mall.” 

The song began with a fingerpicking pattern that eventually transitioned to the song, “Funeral” by Phoebe Bridgers which left the audience excited to sing along after their initial gasp of excitement. 

Aside from Minch’s vocals, he has a sense of humor that connects to the crowd without taking away from his raw talent. 

“This is a song about being poor, any poor people in the audience,” Minch jokingly asked, and immediately received a loud cheer from the crowd. 

It was obvious that the crowd was not extremely familiar with Minch’s music as he began to introduce his song with the exact words of the opening two lines, the crowd immediately noticed.

The biggest laugh not only came from the crowd, but also Minch himself, causing him to restart the song not once, but twice, and eventually having to move on to his song, “jessie” and come back to “moms new car” afterwards. 

The night ended on a good note, as fans arranged a project of signs to be held up, along with their phone flashlights, during her final song “It’s no fun,” the song that inspired the name of the tour.

From pranking each other throughout the show to having everyone dance during Enger’s cover of “Sally, when the wine runs out,” this concert was a melancholy ending to the “It’s so Fun” tour.