Finn Wolfhard and the Sold Out Start
June 11, 2025 - Seattle, Washington
There is a line around The Crocodile, at least halfway around the block, at half an hour till doors. It’s made up of mostly teenage girls and disgruntled parents. At this stage in the night, I am ninety-nine percent sure that I am the oldest person in line who bought tickets for themselves. This thought will go away when I see other people my age standing in the bar area of The Crocodile’s concert space a couple hours later, but while I stood in line under a rare beam of Seattle sun, I could not help but feel like a relic of a bygone era.
The Slaps open for Finn Wolfhard at The Crocodile. Photo by Megan Lorich.
In all fairness, this is not the fault of the singer about to perform for a sold out Crocodile. Finn Wolfhard never asked to have an audience and fanbase of mostly teenagers and young adults, especially in regards to his musical career. The catalyst for that is obviously his child stardom, which has haunted all of his musical ventures thus far. His debut project, Calpurnia, was often referenced as “Finn Wolfhard’s band” by both media outlets and fans alike, though the band never failed to mention that they were an equal four-piece. The Aubreys, his next project with long-time friend and Calpurnia drummer Malcolm Craig, was inherently tied to his film career as one of the band’s first singles was on the soundtrack of The Turning, a horror film Wolfhard starred in that was a critical and commercial bomb. It seems that Wolfhard’s solo career has maintained an audience who is invested because of his child stardom rather than his music – at least that’s what the many Demogorgon keychains, Joseph Quinn and Joe Keery photocards, and other It and Stranger Things merchandise dotting the line would make any keen eyed passerby believe.
The Crocodile is a smaller and historical venue in Belltown. It’s been the host of many iconic performers, given Seattle’s music scene in the 90’s, and is also a frequent stop for up-and-comers. Wolfhard may not be new to the music scene, but his solo career still remains in its infancy despite his proficiency in song writing. The backing band accompanying Wolfhard is also (mostly) composed of musicians he has not publicly performed with previously. In addition to backing Wolfhard, The Slaps opened for him on the tour. On previous stops, Wolfhard and The Slaps have all dressed up in suits and sunglasses, but opted out of their coordinating outfits for the Seattle show.
The Crocodile’s crowd of flashlights during Wolfhard’s performance of You. Photo by Megan Lorich
Listening to The Slaps instantly took me back to college and the rambunctious, yet somewhat elevated, performances of bands made up of my peers at WOW Hall. Going to WOW Hall was different from attending a house or bar show, despite often seeing the same bands. Being sardined in a venue felt like a step up from being sardined in someone’s backyard. Ad-libs from the band certainly lent to this feeling of nostalgia, with the band requiring the audience to all go “Ahhhhhhhh” and “Bow bow bow” at different points throughout their set. The tour’s sound engineer, Maya, was shouted out at one point. The Slaps joked about littering – you heard it here folks, The Slaps are “brought to you by Monsanto.” The band musically sounds just as sarcastic and listless as their riffs with the crowd. Each song was punctuated with a “Thanks everybody,” that sounded both like a bit and a half-hearted period at the end of a sentence, the perfect way to end songs about love and angst and coming of age.
These themes will continue on throughout Wolfhard’s set, but his arrival on stage is preluded by an animated segment. Wolfhard has guest-starred on two different Adult Swim in the last five years, Smiling Friends and JJ Villard’s Fairy Tales. The animated clip that plays seems to be a reference to the former, at least in terms of artstyle. A blonde-haired blue-eyed man in a white button up exuding major youth pastor energy attempts to lead the crowd in prayer, before the opening distorted background of Wolfhard’s opening and titular track to his first album, Happy Birthday, begin. He warbles from off stage, finishing the tune before arriving on stage with The Slaps and jamming straight into “Objection!,” one of the album’s singles. It’s quickly followed by another, “Choose the latter.” Despite both performances sounding true to their studio recordings, Wolfhard apologizes for the rasp in his voice. After all, he is getting over an illness that resulted in the previous night’s show in Portland being cancelled. Wolfhard continues to carry on, deeply invested in the music and just as enthused to riff with the crowds like The Slaps did previously.
It’s quite notable that the album’s singles were placed towards the front half of Wolfhard’s set. Those hypothetical passerbys mentioned earlier could have heard the crowd during Wolfhard’s performances of “Objection!” and “Choose the latter,” reflected on themselves, and thought, “Damn, guess we were wrong about the kid.” This was the volume and enthusiasm heard throughout the Crocodile during these two tracks, which the crowd sang along to perfectly. But as the night progressed, it was clear that Seattle had not studied Happy Birthday in its entirety. In fairness, Wolfhard did play several unreleased songs throughout his set. The man wrote over fifty songs for Happy Birthday, before whittling down to the album’s tracklist of nine. Wolfhard didn’t reveal whether these four new tracks were songs written during this time period or entirely new songs he developed outside of his year-long writing challenge, but Wolfhard did manage to get the crowd involved during these unreleased songs. Wolfhard introduced the second unreleased track “Riddle Me This.” While the other unreleased songs Wolfhard would play were a tad more lofi or featured his trademark dramatic “Oohs,” “Riddle Me This” was bluesy and even featured a call and response.
During You, the slow, romantic, penultimate track on Happy Birthday, the Seattle crowd decided to pull their flashlights out and sway back and forth. While, as mentioned previously, the Crocodile didn’t really sing along to the lyrics of “You”’s chorus, most of the crowd joined in with its “Ooh” refrain. It was a touching moment, but the aftermath of “You” was much more interesting. Wolfhard walked over to the keyboard for the next song as one of the members of the backing band walked up to their mic. While The Slaps were Wolfhard’s primary backing band for the tour, another musician had walked out on stage alongside them and played guitar throughout Wolfhard’s set. This guitarist was the only femme-presenting member on stage, and it took a good hard squint from my spot by the bar for me to realize aloud: “Holy shit, that’s Gep Repasky!”
Finn Wolfhard and Gep Repasky perform No Offerings at The Crocodile. Photo by Megan Lorich
Back in its golden years, Wolfhard’s first band, Calpurnia, often toured alongside Atlanta-based indie rockers Lunar Vacation. Wolfhard would continue to collaborate with Lunar Vacation in his next project, The Aubreys, going so far as to co-write and release a song together. Repasky is the lead singer and guitarist of Lunar Vacation, and unbeknownst to me was taking part in Wolfhard’s tour. In fact, Wolfhard’s move to the keyboard was so Repasky could take over vocals for a single track – their aforementioned collaboration, “No Offerings.” It was a delightful surprise. Happy Birthday tends to flip flop between a few types of lofi: indie rock with a garage edge and depressed analog tracks. “No Offerings” is almost a whimsical sort of marriage between the two categories. The song begins with just Repasky on vocals and Wolfhard on the keys. This barebones beginning, along with lyrics about wanting a real life, are the same elements that make certain tracks on Happy Birthday unmovable and depressing. Yet, the upbeat kick of the drum that makes itself known during “No Offerings’” chorus not only makes the “real life” the narrator of the song dreams of seem possible, but diverts the track back into the indie rock genre both Lunar Vacation and The Aubreys operate in. “No Offerings” did not get Seattle screaming per se, but smiles lit up across the room at the opening notes of the track on the piano. A delightful surprise to say the least, but the crowd wanted more.
Several times throughout the night, various audience members screamed for Wolfhard to play “Greyhound.” This song isn’t on Happy Birthday. It’s not even a track from The Aubreys. It’s actually one of the first singles Calpurnia ever released. See, while cynical passerbys of the line outside the Crocodile may have been wrong about Wolfhard’s line being just Stranger Things fans, there is some truth in the sense that the audience is mostly made up of fans of Wolfhard’s work as a child star. Calpurnia is still beloved by many, myself included. It’s no surprise that the audience was hopeful for a nod to the band, but the constant heckling for “Greyhound” was, at best, distracting. No one asked Miley Cyrus to play “The Climb” during her Bangerz era. Sure, it’s not a one-to-one comparison, but Wolfhard is venturing out into new creative territory. If he wanted to acknowledge Calpurnia, on the stage or off, he would have done so by now. It’s not as though Wolfhard has disregarded the band entirely, but the project is rarely mentioned, even in interviews about his music.
Wolfhard closed out the night with “Crown,” a song which questions if Wolfhard still has a shot at something. While the phrase “Can I still have a crown?” is directly following references to Wolfhard’s struggle with mental health, and in turn questioning if he can overcome these struggles, one can easily see this question being poised about Happy Birthday as a project and Wolfhard’s solo music career as a whole. Based on critical reception, and the smiles from that too-tight Crocodile crowd, the answer is “Yes.” Wolfhard delivered a solid night of indie rock from an album that pulled itself in a variety of directions. At the very least, his sold-out show at the Crocodile is proof of a very good start.
