Shot by: tulle.photo 

What made the night immediately stand out was the remarkably diverse audience—kids, teens, twenty-somethings, and older couples all filled the room. The front row even boasted a 10-year-old fan, and the VIP session earlier in the evening included a four-year-old beaming with excitement. It was the kind of crowd that showed just how wide Acorn’s reach has grown.

Local band Practically People opened the night, joining the tour specifically for this Phoenix stop, followed by Wilt, whose explosive performance set a strong tone for the evening. Both groups brought plenty of energy, though like Acorn later in the night, they struggled with sound issues that muffled their vocals and left their instrumentation overpowering.

When the lights finally dimmed and Taylor Acorn stepped onto the stage, the room erupted. She launched straight into the album’s title track, “Poster Child,” immediately pulling the crowd into the whirlwind of her new era. From there she shifted into “People Pleaser,” introduced with an endearing prerecorded audio clip of Acorn admitting she “actually try[ies] really hard,” which drew cheers right before she dove into the beat. By the time she hit “I Think I’m in Love,” the crowd was fully alive—jumping, shouting, and singing along to every word.

Throughout the night, Acorn leaned into audience participation, especially during songs with repetitive or iconic choruses. More than once she pointed the mic toward the crowd, yelled “WHAT?!” and let fans roar the next line back at her. It became a recurring moment of connection that lit up the room each time.

One of the night’s most charming moments came when Acorn praised how “fucking awesome” Phoenix is, only to immediately catch sight of a child in the crowd. She burst into laughter, apologized, and joked her way out of it—a perfectly human moment that made the audience chuckle, especially considering she launched into a song with cursing right afterward.

The setlist itself was an emotional rollercoaster, pulling from her debut album, Poster Child, earlier singles, and collaborations. Songs like “Burning House,” “Reminisce” (her feature with Said The Sky), and “Shapeshifting” wove seamlessly into the narrative arc of the night. At one point, she moved from the heavier themes of “Crashing Out” into “Hangman,” both raw tracks about difficult life moments, before pivoting into “Greener”—a triumphant, celebratory reminder that things really can get better. The tonal shift created one of the more powerful moments of the evening.

Acorn closed out the main set with “Birds Still Sing,” a standout single from her Survival in Motion that predates the Poster Child album and remains one of her most beloved songs. She then ducked offstage briefly before returning for a two-song encore: “Shapeshifting” and “Psycho,” arguably two of the biggest, most defining songs of her career so far.

With minimal talking and maximum music, the night was clearly designed for fans eager to hear as many songs as possible—and Acorn delivered. Even with flawed sound engineering, her passion, presence, and the crowd’s overwhelming enthusiasm carried the show. For longtime fans and new listeners alike, Taylor Acorn’s Phoenix performance proved once again why she continues to rise: she’s magnetic, honest, emotionally resonant, and entirely in her element onstage.