5.15.26 - Minneapolis, MN

Good Kid brought their fast, fun-filled tour to the Palace Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota, on May 15, 2026. The five-piece indie rock band saw an uptick in streams in 2021 thanks to the Fortnite streamers who would use their music in their streams. Fans of these streamers even started a petition to get Good Kid's songs into the actual game. Now, three of their songs, “Witches,” “No Time to Explain,” and "Orbit," are included as playable songs in the in-game radio in Fortnite. Since then, the band has been on an upwards trajectory and released their debut album, Can We Hang Out Sometime? in April.

Good Kid is more than just a band. Aside from all the members being full-time programmers outside of the band, they’ve also created lore for the overarching story of the music videos they put out. It centers around a group of friends who deliver pizzas by day and play music at night in the city of Neo-TO. They utilize these characters and their stories to separate out personal meaning from their songs. They brought the city and art to life through their stage design, complete with a decorated phone booth and TV screens.

Their opener for the night, INOHA, charged onto the stage with an abundance of energy. They knew their task as an opener, and they were ready to deliver. Filled with headbanging and jumping, INOHA’s catchy melodies made even the parents in the back smile and dance. I was surprised at how loud the crowd was for them. They were screaming back almost every word, which I find rare for an opener. They consistently encouraged the crowd to get even wilder as they performed. The excitement finally reached its peak during their last and most popular song, “Seventh Heaven.” Good Kid guitarist, Jacob Tsafatinos, even joined them while they were performing. The set was perfectly paired with Good Kid and really left the crowd extra energized.

Going into the night, I knew Good Kid put on a fun show, but I was blown away by their performance value, vocals, and the way they managed to do it in under two hours. Before they came on, their team rolled out a giant TV screen with flashing images and visuals labeled “Retention Cam”: an obvious play on Gen Z’s need for constant stimulation to pay attention. The crowd had fun watching the bouncing “Good Kid Video” logo try to hit the corner of the screen. Ah, the sweet nostalgia. After keeping the fans steadily engaged for about 10 minutes, Good Kid finally stepped out on stage.

They didn’t just calmly step out. The band exploded onto the stage, jumping and dancing. They smiled as they greeted the fans with their first song, “Wall.” The bubbles also made a reappearance at the end of their song, “Bubbly.” Good Kid took the time to introduce themselves to the crowd and gave one fun fact about each member. They even briefly led the crowd through a few lines of “I Want It That Way” by The Backstreet Boys before they started their third song, “Tell Me You Know.”

After shyly dipping their toes in the water with crowd surfing during the opener, the fans were in full form and surfing through the crowd in throngs. Despite this, they weren’t in the best crowd surfing form, and lead vocalist Nick Frosst gave a brief lesson in proper crowd surfing form. With that now corrected, there was safe crowd surfing for the rest of the night.

The show was filled with activities to get the fans involved. Between getting a beach ball into the hula hoop of the song they want to hear (RIP to that beach ball) and having a fan come up to play guitar hero during “Osmosis,” Good Kid worked hard to make sure their show was as interactive as possible.

Along with the high-energy songs, they also had a moment of slower songs with “Staying Warm” and “Ghost Keeper.” The unreleased song, “Staying Warm,” was performed acoustically by guitarist David Wood, who wrote the song for his dad. The fans lit up the venue with their phone flashlights and gave the performance the exact emotional reception it deserved.

Fittingly, the last song played before the encore was “Summer,” which contains the repeating lyrics, “This can’t be the end,” and it wasn’t. Good Kid closed out their set with a three-song encore. Finishing with “Mimi’s Delivery Service,” the band and the fans were extra hyped. Both parties exhausted their energy until the end.

Watching this performance and the way the fans reacted was sweet. There were so many opportunities to really connect with one another. Good Kid is a show I would highly recommend going to see. Even if you barely know any of the songs, I guarantee you’ll be entertained all night with their antics and come away with a new appreciation for their music.