It honestly couldn’t have been more on the nose — The Beaches opened their set with “Last Girls At The Party,” and yeah, that’s exactly what the night turned into. The mood was pretty well-dialed in Saturday night before the band even set foot onto the Union Transfer stage. The venue speakers were throwing out pre-show sing-alongs like Icona Pop’s “I Love It” and (because of course) Cyndi Lauper’s “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.” It felt less like waiting around for a show to start and more like pregaming with a couple hundred strangers you’d absolutely split an Uber with later.

They had help, too. The night kicked off with Debbii Dawson, whose dreamy, left-of-center pop pulls from a swirl of influences — think Queen meets ABBA in outer space. Dawson's music pairs cinematic pop arrangements with harder rock guitars, and her voice has a quality reminiscent of Stevie Nicks and Dolly Parton. Based on how much of the audience had arrived by 8pm, it was evident people were just as stoked to Debbii Dawson as they were to see The Beaches (myself included). Between Dawson's performance and the karaoke session in the pit, the room was already buzzing with conviviality by the time The Beaches walked out — if you closed your eyes, it felt like I’d been transported from Union Transfer to a house party in Kensington watching my friend's friend's band perform in the basement (if, you know, my friend's friend's band won multiple Juno Awards [Canada's equivalent of The Grammys] and had an absolute viral moment with a song about one of their exes).

That viral moment in 2023 was the thing that put The Beaches on a collision course with a sold-out crowd in Philly on Saturday night. But make no mistake: the band didn’t just show up out of nowhere. They’ve been putting in the work for years — nearly 15 of them, actually. Back in 2009, sisters Jordan and Kylie Miller started a band called “Done With Dolls” with their friend Eliza Enman-McDaniel. Done With Dolls gave Camp Rock energy — pop-punk with a side of braces (literally; Enman-McDaniel still had them on in the video for “I Don’t Like”). They gained some steam up north, even performing the theme song for the Canadian Family Channel’s teen sitcom Really Me.

Following the departure of original member Megan Fitchett in 2013, the women recruited their friend Leandra Earl in her place. The band's sound began to shift, their lyrics matured, and they rebranded as "The Beaches," named for the neighborhood where the Millers and Enman-McDaniel grew up (for the record, Earl hails from Toronto's Little Italy). The addition of Earl, who publicly came out as gay in 2020, led to the group achieving underground success in the queer community. Their lyrics about messy hookups, heartbreak, and the gray area between situationship and relationship began hitting harder, resonating wider, and drawing more and more people to their shows.

This being my first Beaches show, I was delightedly surprised to feel the anticipation of the crowd all night (especially after witnessing a nearly-dead audience at Garbage's concert at Franklin Music Hall the week prior). In retrospect, the countdown that led into their opening song was as equal parts thematic as it was a metaphor for the explosive energy the quartet was about to unleash on Philadelphia.  When The Beaches hit the stage, I immediately understood the excitement. There's no weak link in this band; yet there is not one single member who stands out from the rest. Each woman owns the stage in a way that’s totally unique to them — four distinct energies locked into the same wavelength. It's a rare phenomenon, and one I haven't seen live since The Return of the Spice Girls tour in 2008.

Saturday’s setlist included all eleven tracks from their third studio album, No Hard Feelings, and when the time came for the band to play the deeply personal ballad “Lesbian of the Year,” which charts Leandra Earl’s journey of self-acceptance in coming to terms with her sexuality later in life, Enman-McDaniel and Kylie Miller left the stage, leaving just Jordan Miller and Earl (on keys) to perform the tune. Miller delivered a vocal performance so impassioned that anyone who lacked prior knowledge of the band would be shocked to discover it was actually her bandmate's experience she was singing about. I scanned the crowd and noticed how many people were wiping tears from their face, listening to a song that finally makes them feel seen, surrounded by over a thousand strangers who feel similarly. It was one of the highlights of the evening, and reminded me of why music is so essential in times like these.

It's one of the things that set The Beaches apart from most other rock bands. They are a unit; a team–all four women share equal billing in the writing credits of each track on No Hard Feelings. In many interviews, the band has stated that they made a conscious effort to ensure songs on this album were written from each individual member’s point of view. In an interview with Them magazine from earlier this year, Earl states it was actually Jordan Miller who implored her to write songs from Earl’s perspective as a queer individual. And though Jordan Miller is the lead vocalist, it does not make her the de facto spokesperson for The Beaches. All four members traded off on mic duty Saturday evening, sharing stories about the upcoming song, giving shout-outs to the crowd, and engaging in playful banter with one another–yes, even Enman-McDaniel from behind the drums.

The band are also incredibly interactive with their fans. Prior to the song “Did I Share Too Much,” the group selected one fan form the crowd to join them on stage and share their “oversharing” story. Mac, the fan who bravely volunteered, jumped in front of the microphone to tell a story about how after spending a recent weekend together, she finally told her best friend that she had romantic feelings for her–only for the friend to ask if they could “talk about it [later].” “And, nothing’s happened, so...” Mac shrugged. The admission elicited sympathetic gasps and boos from the crowd.

“Dude, that literally just happened to me! The same scenario,” Leandra Earl replied from the other side of the stage. “I told my friend I liked her and she said ‘let’s talk tomorrow.’” Mac added that after the friend sent her a 1am drunk text that said, “I like you,” Mac tried to have a discussion with the friend the following morning only for the friend to reply, “Be for real. Not Today.” More boos from the crowd. “Let’s get a drink after the show, we have a lot to talk about,” Earl replied.

Later on in the evening, Jordan Miller emerged from emerged from the wings of the stage wearing a pageant sash emblazoned with the name “Jocelyn.” “Who wants to our Jocelyn tonight?!” Miller asked the crowd, referencing the title of the next song in the setlist. “OK, I’m gonna’ come and find you!” As the song began, Miller descended into the crowd, singing directly to the first few rows of the audience, searching for the fan that would be their Philadelphia “Jocelyn.” “I think I found her!” Miller exclaimed. “Will you be our Jocelyn tonight?” The fan graciously accepted the offer, and Miller began to serenade her. This degree of interaction is refreshing to see. The Beaches don't break down the fourth wall–it simply just doesn't exist in the first place. The audience is as much a part of their show as they are. In an age where many artists have established strict boundaries around fan interaction (something they should absolutely have if they feel it's interfering with their lives), it's really cool to watch a band treat their fans like old friends with whom they haven’t caught up with in a year.

The seventeen-song main set ended with “Blame Brett,” the song that became a viral TikTok sound and gave the band global recognition overnight (quite literally). The track, written for The Beaches' 2023 LP Blame My Ex, explores the difficulty of navigating dating again following a painful breakup (lead vocalist Jordan Miller had just gone through a public breakup with Brett Emmons of the Canadian rock band The Glorious Sons–yep, there's a real Brett). In the same interview with Them magazine sourced earlier, Leandra Earl recalled posting a short clip of Jordan Miller recording the song in the studio to The Beaches’ TikTok account, before going to sleep. When she woke up and looked at her phone, she was astounded to see the TikTok had amassed one million views overnight, “and we were quickly seeing how it translated to Spotify streams and follows,” she recounted. The Beaches’ next show, a set at the 2023 edition of Boston Calling, drew over 40,000 people. The lyrics, a cautionary tale to any future suitors interested in courting Miller are ultra-relatable, and hearing a sold-out Union Transfer screaming, But don’t blame me, blame Brett / Blame my ex, blame my ex, blame my ex is a cathartic experience for anyone who’s been dumped, cheated on, or gone through a messy breakup.

If you have a chance to catch The Beaches on this tour (many of their dates are already sold out, but some still have tickets remaining), GO. I left Union Transfer feeling inspired, elated, and feeling more connected to music than I have in ages. Even if you haven’t heard a single song in their catalog, you will leave happy. Plus, at this rate, they’ll be playing arenas in two years. After all, the goal is to be the last girls at the party, not the last girls to the party, after all.

Setlist

Last Girls at the Party
Touch Myself
Me & Me
Cigarette
Grow Up Tomorrow
Shower Beer
Did I Say Too Much
Fine, Let's Get Married
Dirty Laundry
Can I Call You in the Morning?
What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Paranoid
Everything Is Boring
Lesbian of the Year (stripped-down)
Edge of the Earth
Jocelyn
Take One to Know One
Blame Brett
____________
I Wore You Better
Sorry for Your Loss
Last Girls at the Party (Reprise)