Isaia Huron: Concert Review

April 29, 2026

Before Wednesday night’s show, Isaia Huron — the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer from Greenville, SC — had never been to Philadelphia. In between songs, and with deadpan humor, Huron says to the audience, “y’all probably not gonna believe me, but I’ve always wanted to move to Philly.” Huron says he’s always admired the musicality of the city and its musicians. At one point in the night, Huron points to a man in the room — a musician and pastor from Philadelphia I’d happened to struck up a conversation with before the show started whose known Huron since he as a kid — and says “I wouldn’t be doing music if it weren’t for him.” As a drummer, church kid/son of a pastor, and Gen Z artist, it’s easy to understand how Huron came to hold Philadelphia in such high regard as the city’s music scene’s gained somewhat of a cult-following in the years following the neo-soul period of the early 2000s. There’s a sense reverence for the city and craft that underscores the night; not just another stop on a tour.

On Wednesday, April 29th, Huron performed at PhilaMOCA, a small independent music venue in Philadelphia, marking the 5th date on a 8-city tour. Earlier this month, Huron released Mr. Lovebomb, his second album in the past 8 months. The tour — titled Mr. Lovebomb’s Tiny Little Tour — comes in support of his latest albums.

Dressed in all black, and backed by a 4-piece band, Huron took the stage a little after 8:30 PM. The show is sold out and the room packed with fans. Huron makes banter with the audience throughout the night. Early on, he let’s the crowd know he hasn’t been feeling well (in his words, and with that same deadpan humor, he blames one of those “fast girls” from New York, the previous stop on his tour, for getting him sick). He’s lost his voice, but will push through.

Huron started the night with CONCUBANIA! the title track from his 2025 album. The groove here is undeniable and the band adds flourishes to the original arrangement. The song features a breakdown for audience participation, which brought the audience further in.

Huron spent most of the night bouncing between his last two projects. Huron’s music carries a vast sonic palette extending from the Black church. You could feel a shared sensibility in the room, where sonic reference points were lived experience for the audience, too. Listening to his music there are traces of Tonéx and D’Angelo; Bryson Tiller and PARTYNEXTDOOR; Fleet Foxes and Radiohead (he’s got a song called pablo honey song #2). All these influences meet in not-so-obvious, but exciting, ways.

In one of the funnier moments from the night — and there were many — Huron asked the audience, “where the white people were at in the room?” eventually declaring that he made HOML(an acronym for “heaven on my lips”) for them. The song features an acoustic guitar and a train beat on the drums; it sits somewhere between folk and R&B (he even pretended as he were riding a horse at one point). Still, this speaks to the wide range of his sonic palette.

Huron’s band, which he calls “The BEST” band — an acronym comprised of the musicians first names — elevated each song, making slight, but impactful, changes to the original compositions, giving just enough ear candy for curious ears. Their performance on THOTFUL and FIDDY stood out in this way. You could see joy on their faces and in the sound produced; giving each other the “musician’s ugly face” — a look that exists between disgust and adulation.

Huron’s performance of LIST CRAWLER was exhilarating. It’s a song that feels sparse to start, then eventually climaxes with a catchy horn line. But, because there weren’t any horns with Huron on tour, the audience filled in, passionately singing the horn parts.

I find Huron to be affable and compelling as an artist. His music is imaginative and world-building, often drawing out elaborate imaginary scenarios for the character’s he’s created, “Mr. Lovebomb” in this case. In this way, Huron’s music is often comedic, too. Consider Propane, a song from his latest album — which sounded great live, by the way. Huron plays out an argument between Mr. Lovebomb and a lover who’s grown insecure, with good reason, about his honesty in the relationship. Playing coy, he says “you gon’ have to explain to me what you mean by gaslighting/Oh, I thought I left you electrified and inspired.”

At different points, it was clear that Huron wasn’t feeling well, but I thought his performance still clocked in well. Where Huron was compromised vocally, he made up for in audience engagement (he joked that he felt like Ricky Dillard at one point directing the choir of the audience). Sick or not, good, well-composed songs can carry you, and that’s what they did for Isaia Huron on this night.

Band:

You can read about Isaia Huron as our cover artist from our August 2025 playlist here or by clicking the photo below.

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