Broncho at 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis (August 7, 2025)

Fifteen years in, Broncho is a compelling live act, bending time, memory, and pop-rock structures until you’re not sure what you’re hearing, only that it feels familiar. At a sold-out show Thursday night at the 7th Street Entry, they turned their new album into the foundation for a two-hour immersive experience.

There was no opener, only a 20-minute rear-projected haunted video piece about an imaginary absurdist branded cologne (“BRONCHO, unscented formula: smell like yourself”). This set a mood better than any “warm up” could.

They started off with Natural Pleasure’s opening track, “Imagination,” and it was clear the set would mirror the album’s form: performed in full, in order. That means no surprises, but also no filler. Songs like “Funny” and “Get Gone” alternated between strut and sway, the grooves and volume doing enough work to keep the dream from becoming a nap. At center stage, Ryan Lindsey delivered lyrics more suggested than sung, his weight on his toes, doing a kind of inward-facing heel shuffle. His voice remains the project’s most unique element: soft, often genderless, high in the mix on the record but harder to pick out here in the Entry’s airless reverb chamber. Watching him repeat the fragile “ooohweeuhoooh” parts live, you realize how much effort it takes to sound this effortless.

After Natural Pleasure wrapped up (all twelve tracks in a tight 45), the band shifted into a string of crowd favorites, where the contrast sharpened. The newer songs are textured and shaded, with sneaky guitar licks hiding behind hazy effects. The older ones, like “Class Historian” and “Try Me Out Sometime,” are sharper-edged and structurally weirder, with off-kilter time signatures and undeniably sticky refrains. If the new stuff floats, the old stuff thumps.

A single lighter went up during “In My Car,” which tells you something about how these songs land emotionally. Broncho’s melodies get under your skin in slow motion. After a triumphant run of pop hits, Broncho returned for a generous five-song encore, mostly from Double Vanity, still resisting any real banter. When a fan called out her favorite song, Lindsey’s only response was a percussive “um um um um” that somehow counted as acknowledgment.