Secondhand Setlists

The ladies of MUNA appeared a bit emotional on Wednesday night as they took to the Fonda stage in Hollywood.

Their second show in their hometown of LA this year, MUNA‘s performance revealed the group’s sound continues to attract more and more fans, a fact that made lead singer Katie Gavin get a little sentimental at times. Such emotion, however, played into MUNA‘s brand of synthpop, which channels passion and feeling into honest and inclusive music anyone can simultaneously boogie and bawl along to. As a result, the audience ate it up, singing along as if reciting their own diary pages. Each track they played, from deeper cuts like “If U Love Me Now” to future queer anthems like “I Know A Place”, elicited emotional responses from everyone, and I mean everyone, present.

In between bits of their cathartic dancefloor pop, the band peppered their setlist with covers by both U2 and Stevie Nicks. The Nicks cover, “Edge of 17”, felt perfectly in-sync with the young trio; its themes of growing up and loss of innocence resounded with the confidence of surpassing hardship and heartbreak. The climax of the show, “Crying on the Bathroom Floor”, saw them clearing one last hurdle before reaching the hopeful finale of “I Know A Place”. The whole time, these bandmates each held themselves like rockstars, especially guitarist Josette Maskin. Her look gave off a sort of Charli XCX-meets-Beetlejuice vibe, and her easygoing demeanor made for a near-perfect example of a person who is “born to do this.”