Just a Fiddle and a Friend, Father John Misty Goes Solo at the Fonda

Father John Misty kept the band small and the jokes dry on Tuesday night. Josh Tillman played a sold out solo show at the Fonda Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard on October 6, an 80 minute set of new material and fan favorites, Glide Magazine reported. It was a 90 degree autumn night, the review noted, and he did not sweat in his cardigan.

The show was billed as solo, but Tillman had two players with him as he moved between guitar and piano. Omar Velasco, who opened the night with his own California folk set, played acoustic guitar, and Jason Crosby played fiddle. Tillman opened by saying he was relieved that “we didn’t over-prepare.” After the first song he added, “I hope you don’t mind if I do a lot of tuning tonight.”

New Songs First

The night leaned on unreleased material. Glide described it as something of a reprise of his set at this year’s Newport Folk Festival, where he stepped in as a late replacement for the Tedeschi Trucks Band and played a largely acoustic set with several new songs, as Consequence reported. The new songs at the Fonda included “Josh Tillman, His Father, and the Scottsdale Experience,” a story song about the possibility that his father was a CIA spy, and “Lost in Lyricland.” Glide was candid that not every new track landed, and noted that the crowd sighed with relief when he turned to “I Went to the Store One Day” after more than 20 minutes of new music.

The old songs did the rest. The room went wild for “The Night Josh Tillman Came to Our Apartment,” and he closed the main set with the title track from I Love You, Honeybear. When he forgot the words to the second verse of “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings” in the encore, the crowd filled them in. He ended with “I’m Writing a Novel” and a fiddle solo from Crosby. When a fan shouted that he was the best at what he does, he had an answer ready. “Oh yeah, whatever that is, I’ve got it on lock.”

From Fleet Foxes to Big Sur

The crowd knew the history. Tillman once played drums in Fleet Foxes, and Honeybear, his breakout second album as Father John Misty, arrived in 2015 and found a home with millennials who had grown up on that band, Glide noted. His sixth album, Mahashmashana, came out in November 2024, and he has kept new music coming this year with “The Old Law” in January, “The Payoff” in May and now “The X-panded Universe,” his third standalone release of 2026, according to Consequence. The new single was arranged by Drew Erickson, who co-produced it with Tillman.

The Fonda at 100

The night was part of the Fonda’s 100th birthday. The theatre opened in 1926 as Carter De Haven’s Music Box, a legitimate stage house that hosted the West Coast premiere of Chicago starring Clark Gable, and later, as the Pix, premiered Jaws and Rocky, according to the venue. Its nine show anniversary series opened October 1 with Suicidal Tendencies and continues with Remi Wolf on October 10, Peaches on October 17, Cuco on October 21, Flying Lotus on October 23 and Animal Collective on October 24, the Los Angeles Daily News reported. The series follows a pair of surprise Paul McCartney concerts at the Fonda earlier this year. Velvet also covered Where It All Started, Matchbox Twenty Opens Its 30th Year at the Fonda.

Tuesday was a preview of where Tillman is headed. In December he starts his first solo headlining tour since 2013, opening December 9 at the Boulder Theatre and moving through Fort Collins, Santa Fe, Tucson, Napa and Grass Valley before two nights at the Sunset Cultural Center in Carmel-by-the-Sea on December 18 and 19, Consequence reported. Damien Jurado supports, and the Carmel shows benefit the Big Sur Park School.