Artist Presale: June 29 @ 10:00 AM PTMRG Presale: June 29 @ 12:00 PM PT
On Sale: July 1 @ 10:00 AM PM
Medium Build is partnering with P
LUS1 so that $1 from every ticket sold goes to REVERB and their work creat
ing a more sustainable music industry and empowering fans to take action o
n environmental and social issues. \;https://reverb.org/
Before The Show: Mediu
m Build Unplugged Includes:
- One (1) GA ticket
- Pre-s
how soundcheck experience
- Solo acoustic performance (2&ndash\;3 songs
)
- Q&\;A session
- Exclusive merch item
- Commemorative lamin
ate
- Early entry
- Crowd-free merch shopping
Medium B uild&rsquo\;s Nick Carpenter never planned for a career as a sing er-songwriter to take him to great heights. But when it did &mdash\; an as cent made possible on the merits of his razor-sharp and fearlessly reflect ive tunes\, electrifying performances\, and acerbic\, hilarious wit &mdash \; he certainly wasn&rsquo\;t prepared to end up so close to the edge.&nbs p\;
Now\, on the heels of his breakthrough 2024 album Country\, year s of relentless touring under increasingly brighter lights and bigger stag es\, and recovery from the subsequent fallout that often follows fame\, co mes King of Having Fun\, Medium Build&rsquo\;s most cohesive\, ex troverted\, and joyful record yet. An album made not in an isolated bedroo m like much of his past work but live in a studio with his closest friends and collaborators\, it is fueled by a fresh rock-and-roll energy paired w ith the artist&rsquo\;s familiar lo-fi-meets-indie-and-country sound yet s till driven by the biting lyrical insight and potent self-examination that has endeared Carpenter to throngs of fans worldwide. Sure to bring Medium Build to a whole new level of stardom through its sheer sonic power and s ongwriting prowess\, King of Having Fun is the sound of a fractur ed soul picking up the pieces out of the darkness of rock-bottom and redis covering real love &mdash\; for others\, for joy\, and for oneself.
Carpenter\, who was raised in an evangelical household in Georgia and lear ned at an early age how to both perform and to be performative\, credits t he birth of Medium Build to two significant personal heartbreaks: once as an aspiring Christian at the hands of the Church\, and once by the music i ndustry as a member of an indie rock band called\, fittingly\, Little Mose s.
&ldquo\;Most of my upbringing was spent learning how to perform t he act of existence\,&rdquo\; he says. &ldquo\;Being a good boy at church or school was how you got ahead\, so the church was a place for me to perf orm this sort of existence to earn praise and perks. But when I found out how fucked up its inner workings are\, the church dream died. And my exper ience in Nashville for music was very similar. So\, Medium Build was creat ed to be a place where no one could ever take anything from me. It was bor n from a kill-all-accessibility perspective: Say the darkest\, nastiest th ought you're otherwise afraid to say\; don't filter &mdash\; all the shit you weren't allowed to say at church\, say it here. I just wanted a place where I could be ugly.&rdquo\;
Having tried his hand in a few differ ent Southern music hubs\, Carpenter took advantage of an opportunity to re start as far away from home as possible and moved in with his older brothe r in Anchorage\, Alaska\, in 2018\, where he continued writing stripped-do wn\, angsty\, and wry songs under the Medium Build name. Adding guitar and vocals to beats or loops\, Carpenter let the raw\, emotional texture of h is voice shine\, and when paired with the evocative\, heartrendingly real nature and relatability of his lyrics\, a winning formula emerged. Recruit ing a production-savvy friend to help him record and engineer\, the output retained a strong DIY sensibility while revealing itself clearly capable of reaching a larger audience. Galvanized by that performative religious b ackground\, early Medium Build shows were communal\, life-affirming affair s\, and their spectacle spread via social media and word of mouth. A stead y grip of EPs\, full-lengths\, and singles over the next five years culmin ated with a slowplay/Island Records deal\, bigger tours\, and a move to Na shville in 2023\, followed by the 2024 LP Country. \;
A ll the while\, Carpenter\, who had been bartending in Anchorage while not playing shows and had a history of drinking-to-excess amid spells of sobri ety\, was abusing alcohol and partying more and more. That\, paired with h is deep-seated approval-seeking\, social-chameleon tendencies and the peri ls of the road\, was making it difficult for him to maintain his health\, interpersonal relationships\, and any sense of himself. He was depressed\, unfulfilled\, and his bipolar disorder was then as-yet undiagnosed and th ereby unmedicated. Nick Carpenter&rsquo\;s personal life existed in sharp contrast to the rising star of Medium Build.
&ldquo\;After the pande mic\, my career was starting to go well\, I was in a serious relationship \, and my home life was chill. It felt like I couldn't do any wrong. Got s igned\, put out the album in 2024\, did all the festivals\, the world tour . My cocky drinking started going off the charts\, and my lore began to ov ershadow my existence. I had a full-blown panic attack on stage\, ruined a couple shows. That was basically rock-bottom: waking up in a hotel room i n Australia\, just feeling like I could die. I think I could be done. I played Bonnaroo\, played London\, met David Gray. I've done everything I thought I could do. This little thing clicked in my head: Nobody would blame you if you wanted to kill yourself now. You&rsquo\;ve put out a record\, been successful. You've done all the drugs\, had sex with anyo ne you want. What do you want now? I just wasn't curious about anythi ng anymore. I felt boredom and pressure to continue doing this thing that I wasn't enjoying. I didn't have a firm base in anything\, no spiritual gr ounding. Something had changed. I wanted to die.&rdquo\;
He called a meeting with his team and bandmates that was essentially a cry for help. The response was immediate\, and Carpenter began to slowly chip away at hi s path to recovery. He took a break from music\, got diagnosed\, got meds \, got sober\, became single\, started working on himself&hellip\;and got better. And\, in true Medium Build fashion\, he was constantly writing can did\, incisive songs about his experience throughout the entire process.
&ldquo\;It was scary to say something out loud like that\,&rdquo\; he says. &ldquo\;I basically spent 2025 in this weird cocoon\, licking my wo unds\, making amends. But there's also the pink cloud of early sobriety an d the confidence that comes with that: I'm losing weight. I'm running a fuck-ton of miles. I'm single and I'm feeling good. The suicidal thought s have gone away and now: Here I am. And so that's when we made the r ecord.&rdquo\;
Although it is without a doubt his brainchild\, Carpe nter insists he has never done Medium Build alone\, and from the start he knew he wanted to make these new songs into a rafters-reaching rock record with his band together in a live room. He booked a studio for two weeks\, and assembled his collaborative dream team &mdash\; Paul Rogers\, the mus ical director\; Jimmy Mansfield\, the engineer\; and Jake LiBassi\, the at mospheric moodmaker &mdash\; to lock in and steer the creative process. Th ey often reverse-engineered from the perspective of playing the songs live in bigger rooms and arenas at the objective forefront\, and added upbeat tempos\, guitar solos\, singalongs\, and more with those specific\, future rock and roll moments in mind. And yet despite the dark subject matter ha nging over much of it all\, Carpenter&rsquo\;s lyrics also poke and prod a t the gloaming\, revealing a newfound maturity and rediscovered zest. \;
&ldquo\;You pull a guy out of the noose\, squash his bipolar down \, give him running and sunshine and the chance to sit at home for awhile& hellip\;the songs just started falling out. These tunes feel like they wer e made in a padded room where I could be really honest. A lot of the recor d&rsquo\;s got tempo\, a lot is fun to sing. There&rsquo\;s a playfulness \, sonically\, and it's a big collaboration\, with six or seven people inv olved on almost every tune.&rdquo\;
Throughout King of Having Fu n\, the kitchen sink of Medium Build&rsquo\;s abilities and Carpenter &rsquo\;s chameleon-like skill to succeed in multiple genres is on full di splay. &ldquo\;Do Something Productive&rdquo\; sets an early tone of anthe mic power-pop mixed with modern country sentimentalism\, while &ldquo\;Con e Off&rdquo\; apes the latter genre&rsquo\;s sonics while celebrating the singer&rsquo\;s untethered freedom. The title track is a hero&rsquo\;s jou rney from darkness to light\, with nostalgic revelry for simpler times sun g through a George-Strait-meets-Andy-Shauf sincerity\, and the achingly si mple acoustic ditty &ldquo\;Feed the Boys&rdquo\; depicts a young Carpente r in the car with his mom as they enjoy a treat on their way home. &ldquo \;Bird Woman&rdquo\;&rsquo\;s wall of guitars and obscure lyrics (&ldquo\; They&rsquo\;re dark\,&rdquo\; Carpenter\, who identifies as queer\, says: &ldquo\;I'm watching a woman do Tai Chi while talking about a guy not leav ing his wife for me&rdquo\;) hearken to Carpenter&rsquo\;s indie-est idols \, with offerings made to Pedro the Lion\, Alvvays\, and Dinosaur Jr\, and &ldquo\;Home Depot&rdquo\; is a &rsquo\;90s pop-country radio jam that te lls the story of Steve\, a guy who is simply incapable of being emotional without his tools. Carpenter calls &ldquo\;Armor&rdquo\; the heart of the record\, with its three verses of headspinning neuroses in the arena-busti ng style of Harry Styles\, Sam Fender\, and U2. The album closes with the gorgeous &ldquo\;Thank You Cook&rdquo\; like an end credits number in a fi lm\, with brushes melting over an early-Coldplay-esque tone and whisper-so ft vocals. A love song to his partner\, the musician Annika Bennett (who c o-wrote throughout the record and sings background vocals on several songs )\, the track represents a new gear for Medium Build\, one that suggests t hat all the lows in Carpenter&rsquo\;s past life have served the purpose o f helping him to appreciate the highs to come.
&ldquo\;A lot of my s ongs come from a sense of discomfort that I then have to frame in criticis m\,&rdquo\; he says. &ldquo\;I'm great at taking something down or writing about tension in a relationship\; I've never been good at writing about h ow nice a relationship can be. So this record feels like the first time I was able to say\, in an artistic way that didn't feel cloying\, Thank you for loving me. Obviously\, I had to lose it to be able to put it into words. That's really hard to do when you&rsquo\;re in it\, but that t ime and space helps you see. And I now realize I have the power to give my self all the things I need. So I'm back\, I'm doing it\, and I love it. Th is album has a genuine love song for my partner and a genuine love song fo r my mom\; there aren&rsquo\;t many knocking someone off their high horse. I guess it's a sign of my growth. It's maybe the best and most important thing I've ever made. I got all my favorite people in a room and we had fu n. It&rsquo\;s a celebration of life.&rdquo\;
And\, as he sings on t
he album&rsquo\;s final\, powerful moment &mdash\; When the love I lea
rn from you / Becomes the love I give myself&hellip\; I love myself\, I am
home / I don&rsquo\;t need anything &mdash\; we\, too\, can take hea
rt\, knowing that Nick Carpenter is planted firmly on solid ground\, at la
st.
Have an MRG Credit/Gift Card? Redeem for tickets HERE
Events at the Vogue Theatre may include strobe and other in
tense lighting effects. These can affect guests with photosensitive epilep
sy or light sensitivity. \;