Australian artist Tones and I, whose song “Dance Monkey” became a viral hit and topped charts around the world, brought her North American tour to Los Angeles this past Tuesday where she played a sold out show at The Fonda Theatre. The singer began her career as a busker, drawing crowds as she performed different covers and original songs with only a couple keyboards, a loop pedal, and a microphone on the streets of Byron Bay in New South Wales. Before introducing a cover of Flume and Chet Faker’s “Drop The Game,” Tones told the audience at The Fonda how unbelievable her journey had been thus far and how up until about a year ago she’d been performing on the street. With nothing but her 2019 EP, The Kids Are Coming, under her belt, the young singer-songwriter filled out the rest of her set with a couple covers and a new, unreleased song titled “You’re So F**king Cool.” The new song, she explained, recounts her experience at an LA party in which all the other attendees seemed too self-involved to engage in any meaningful conversation. As with most of her other work, this song is a fun mix of indie pop and electronic elements, which had the LA crowd bopping their heads despite being the very people the sarcastic tune was jabbing at. In her introduction to “Dance Monkey” Tones explained that the song had come from her desire to create something that made people want to dance. I think it’s safe to say she succeeded as virtually every member of the audience danced along to the infamous tune and then continued dancing into her final song of the night, the self-produced title track of her EP, “The Kids Are Coming.”
