Saturday the 30th, Peter McPoland and his highschool bandmates took the stage at Fountain Square’s venue HI FI Indy.
I listened to Peter’s 2023 album, Piggy on the way to Thanksgiving dinner that Thursday, and I liked it a lot. I was taken aback because songs I have heard by Peter had been more in the indie pop genre and all over TikTok. Piggy holds space in the alternative scene, creeping in and out of midwest emo. Lots of tracks reminded me of the 90’s alternative sensation Weezer, but I also feel a touch of early 2000’s emo in there, like Panic! At The Disco. Overall, the record had a very dark tone, despite McPoland’s distinct voice, that fits in the indie pop scene. Piggy is unlike anything I had ever heard. McPoland came out during the album’s promotional period and said the record is “an album lover’s album” and that it is supposed to be listened to front to back as a project. Piggy’s title was inspired by William Golding’s character from Lord of The Flies and the album as a whole stems from McPoland’s parent’s divorce. My favorite song McPoland performed Saturday night from Piggy was the song “Dog.” It’s the turning point of the record before “Were You There?” a fun, more upbeat song from the album.
Peter did something for this tour that I had never seen or heard of before. McPoland announced on November 18th that for the rest of the Buddy Tour, his highschool band West End would perform the opening set. With Peter as the frontman, drummer Joe Curtin and guitarist Landon Laney, the three performed as West End. Joe and Landon also backed up Peter during his headlining set. McPoland made jokes throughout the entirety of West End’s set that the headliner “sucked” and that he was “cringe.” while also mocking John Mayer, fiddling random notes on his guitar and singing the song Gravity. My favorite part of West End’s set and the night as a whole is that the three bandmates stood up near the end of the set, and sang an acapella version of the classic “Swing Low Sweet Chariot”.
During West End’s performance – the projector had videos of streamers playing Nintendo’s game Super Smash Bros, this was a big mistake for Peter, because his laptop was visible to the first few rows of the audience – leading to multiple fans airdropping memes and messages to the laptop. The notifications stayed on the screen throughout the performance and honestly made the show a little more personal. HIFI Indy is a pretty small, intimate venue. There was not exactly a photo pit, so that meant I got to stand in a restricted area off to the side of the stage. Initially, this was disappointing because as a photographer I couldn’t get a variety of shots. But after West End’s set – before exiting the stage, Peter stopped for a moment and greeted me, giving me a fist bump. A few moments later in between sets, Peter comes out the door right behind me to pull something up on his laptop, which was sitting on the stage right in front of me. We talked for a little bit while he pulled up “10 hours of black and white movies to fall asleep.” This video played on the projector for the entirety of the second set. Peter really is a super cool dude and it was pretty sweet getting to talk to him for a few minutes.
McPoland got his start after releasing his solo single “Lady Bird” in 2018. He started gaining traction in 2020 on TikTok – promoting his song “Romeo & Juliet.” The rest is history, ever since McPoland hasn’t stopped creating. He continues to post content on his tiktok page. Mostly documenting his recording process and snippets of new songs with a humorous tone. McPoland shares this type of attitude on social media with similar artist Role Model, which happens to be a touchy subject for avid fans of both artists. Role Model and fashion influencer Emma Chamberlain broke up in November of 2023 and now Peter McPoland is rumored to be dating Chamberlain. Aside from relationship drama, what really got things rolling for Peter as a musician was a tour with Twenty One Pilots as their opener in 2022. He also opened for Imagine Dragons earlier this year, with a few dates on the west coast.
McPoland, Curtin and Laney came onto stage after West End’s set, opening with the single “Dig Your Man.” After the three cracked open a couple white claws, they performed “Eloise,” Peter’s hit single which rounds out at about 6.2 million streams on Spotify. Peter averages around 1.3 million monthly streams on Spotify, with his most streamed songs being “Romeo & Juliet” and “Digital Silence” tying at 63 million streams each. He performed these songs in the last half of the set. He put a fun twist on “Digital Silence,” making it a more lowkey, melancholy tune, claiming he cant play the main guitar riff live because of its difficulty. Walking into the show, I
figured the song would be performed last – similar to the 1975 performing their single “People” as the encore. The two songs are similar in their criticism of modern day society.
McPoland made it clear at the end of the set that he wasn’t a fan of encores as a performer, and that there were only two more songs he was going to perform with his heart and soul, asking the audience to do the same. Peter ended his set with “String Lights,” the opening track of his first album Slow Down, released in 2022. He performed this set with no lights except the flashlights from the audience, which really added to the performance very well. I am truly glad I had the opportunity to photograph Peter and his performance in Indianapolis. I am excited to see his growth as a musician, and I hope he continues to experiment with his
style, crossing boundaries and weaving in and out of every genre. He is everywhere on the music spectrum and will soon be on every Spotify curated playlist, watch out.
Photos and Review by Ella Absher (@absherstudios)
