Fitz and the Tantrums

August 31, 2025 | ACL Live Theater

Fitz and the Tantrums ended their Man on the Moon tour at ACL Live on Sunday. Austin has always been part of their DNA. In the early 2010s, I first heard “MoneyGrabber” on a SXSW playlist, and when their debut Pickin’ Up the Pieces arrived it stayed in constant rotation for me. Their follow-up, More Than Just a Dream (2013), kept the momentum going, and when I saw them in Baltimore that same year, Michael Fitzpatrick and Noelle Scaggs were magneticl. It was obvious the band was on its way up.

Seventeen years and six albums later, they are still here, still together, and still evolving. The Neo-soul grit of their debut has been replaced by pop songs built for big choruses and singalongs. Fitz are not alone in that transition. The early 2010s produced a whole wave of bands that rode SXSW buzz from blog hype to record deals, and many of them ended up trading raw edges for festival polish. Fitz and the Tantrums leaned into that evolution and used it to remain a working band all these years later. 

Scaggs remains the band’s anchor. Midway through the night she grabbed the mic, introduced herself as the “boss lady,” and instructed the audience to raise their phones. The theater lit up instantly. Later she had the crowd making heart signs with their hands, a surprisingly intimate gesture in a venue that size. Watching her now, you see less of the spark plug I remember from 2013 and more of a conductor, still captivating audiences with her natural aura. 

The show’s most poignant moment came just before the finale. Fitzpatrick stopped to tell the story of pulling into SXSW “broke as shit, out of money, out of options,” only to watch “20 dickhead record guys” walk out of their showcase. The following night, they played at Mellow Johnny’s (back when it was still on Nueces Street), and, in his words, “blew the roof off.” That performance earned them a record deal and launched a run that still hasn’t stopped. Sharing that history in Austin, at the end of a long tour, gave the night a sense of closure. It also set up “HandClap,” the inevitable closer that had the entire theater bouncing.

Would I would have liked to hear more from those first two albums? Of course! The set did not reach the same highs I remember from the first time I saw them. But looking around at kids who were not even alive when Fitz first played Austin, screaming and singing every word, it was clear the band’s connection to its audience has not faded. And it’s that connection that has given them the longevity they’ve worked so hard to establish. 

Find Fitz and the Tantrums at: Instagram, Website, and streaming everywhere. Their new album Man on the Moon was released on July 25, 2025 by Atlantic Records.