FLETCHER Review
Fresh off an incredibly successful sold-out headlining tour across North America and Europe, critically acclaimed singer-songwriter FLETCHER is back on the road again for a mini-tour across the US in celebration of Pride Month. The tour, named Meet Her At The Bar, was inspired by The Lesbian Bar Project and their efforts to support the country’s few remaining lesbian bars–with a goal of preserving safe spaces for queer communities throughout the US. With that in mind, FLETCHER’s intention for this particular run differs from her usual tours in that she is performing at four culturally significant, women-owned queer bars in order to uplift and support them, but also create a conversation around the importance of keeping these spaces open.
The tour officially kicked off on June 12 at Pearl Bar in Houston, TX and made its way to San Diego’s Gossip Grill last night for its third stop. The bar itself was decked out in Meet Her At The Bar promo posters as well as fliers with information on the event’s exclusive merch and raffle. What’s especially great is that the proceeds from the merch and raffle ticket sales go directly to support the bars on the tour. The raffle prizes included choosing the next song in the setlist, selfies with the artist, shots of your choice with the artist, a $500 gift card for Lyft, and free tickets to an upcoming FLETCHER concert. Among the merch items that could be purchased were raffle tickets, a signed Meet Her At The Bar poster, a meet and greet after the show, and a famous FLETCHER boob signing.
For those out of the loop, the singer made it her goal to sign a pair of boobs at every show of her latest tour. Of course, she easily hit her goal as fans at every show went wild to get their chest signed. Now it has become a staple characteristic of a FLETCHER show. (I mean, you can’t really say you’ve seen FLETCHER live unless she’s signed a fan’s boob!) However, me being the boring individual that I am on Tuesday nights when I have work early the next morning, I opted for a few raffle tickets.
Leading up to the start of the show, fans began to chant “FLETCHER” over and over. Soon enough, it turned into screams as she made her way onto the stage. After a quick introduction about the tour, she went right into one of her latest hits, “girls girls girls.” The bar, once again, was filled with screams as the crowd sang along to every word as she moved from one side of the stage to the other, constantly interacting with every single person in the room.
Now let me preface this by saying, this is my first ever FLETCHER concert. Any previous live experience I’ve had with her has been strictly through my fyp on TikTok, random posts on Instagram, etc. With that being, we’re halfway through the first song of the set and I am instantly hooked.
Her vocals are obviously flawless. But the beautiful thing about this show is that it featured stripped-down versions of her songs where her voice was even clearer, giving the audience a chance to truly admire the intimate experience. I’d even go as far as saying that the goosebumps I got in that moment were reminiscent of the first time I heard her music. Reliving such a cherished memory would leave anyone speechless.
But what really pulled me in was her stage presence. After a couple of songs, a raffle winner was able to choose the next song in the set and “Silence” was chosen. The instrumental started, and FLETCHER started singing but soon realized that she was singing the wrong lyrics. The band restarted and it happened again. FLETCHER laughed, apologized, then admitted that it was the first time they played the song as an acoustic version, so the different instrumental was throwing her off. Everyone cheered her on and started singing the lyrics with her until she picked it up and the show was back on track with the singer and crowd reciprocating each other’s energy. The whole situation was, of course, unplanned. But frankly, her reaction was endearing and gave a look into her down-to-earth personality. In short, FLETCHER was made for the stage.
Soon enough, the concert had reached the end and those without a wristband for the meet and greet portion of the event had to exit the stage area. All in all, for my first FLETCHER concert, I’m incredibly happy that I was able to experience it in this way. The intimate setting truly felt like a once-in-a-lifetime experience, especially for a rising pop star whose popularity and fan base continues to grow at an exponential rate. I’m excited for whatever FLETCHER has coming up in her career, and I definitely won’t miss her the next time she’s in town.
FLETCHER, photo by Kristen Jan Wong