Finn Wolfhard’s Intimate Night at Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn – 9/8/25

Review by Genevieve Cai

On September 8th, Finn Wolfhard brought the Objection! Tour to Brooklyn at the Music Hall of Williamsburg in celebration of his debut solo album, Happy Birthday, which came out June 6th.
The Stranger Things actor is not new to the indie rock world though, having previously fronted the Canadian rock band Calpurnia and also more recently released music as The Aubreys with Calpurnia’s ex-drummer. Happy Birthday utilizes indie pop, folk and even lo-fi elements to channel late 90s indie nostalgia and coming of age themes, which meant the vibes of the night got to go all around.

It was my first time attending a show at this venue, and I was pleasantly surprised by how intimate it was. A balcony overlooked the small floor, where a couple of Wolfhard’s fellow Stranger Things castmates (Joe Keery and Gaten Matarazzo, whose birthday was actually this night) supported him with us.

Chicago-based indie rockers The Slaps opened the show, bringing forth some awesome
harmonies and head-bopping chords. The drummer, Josh Resing, had a shining solo in their song, “Being Around” which they ended their set with and really stuck with me. When Wolfhard came out, The Slaps nicely transitioned from the opening band to his backing
band. He started off with the catchy and powerful “Everytown There’s a Darling”, immediately capturing the audience (and became my new favorite of his). This was followed by “Objection!” and the album’s lead single, “Choose the Latter”. Wolfhard continued to switch between slow,
heartfelt songs to drum-heavy, danceable tunes where his iconic raspy, raw vocals got to shine. A nice sprinkling of covers were included in the set, including “Another Girl Another Planet” by The Only Ones and “No Offerings” by Wolfhard’s own duo The Aubreys. The latter was sung by both Wolfhard, who had moved to the keyboard, and Grace of Lunar Vacation, who collaborated with The Aubreys on the track and had been one of the guitarists on stage. For the title track, “Happy Birthday”, the last song before the encore, Wolfhard returned to the
keyboard. The room hushed, and the only lights were the ones illuminating the stage, and from a girl in the front row who wore a hat shaped like a birthday cake with glowing candles. The
encore itself triumphantly sent the night out with “Trailers After Dark” and “Crown”. For “Crown”, Wolfhard swapped places with the drummer and energetically drummed the entire outro of the song to a chorus of cheers.

Overall, the atmosphere of the show was incredibly enjoyable. Though there were not many talking breaks, one funny moment was when Wolfhard mentioned Chicago, where The Slaps are from, and everybody cheered. He went, “There’s really that many of you from Chicago?” to which the crowd all shouted the cities they actually were from; he then joked, “Okay, that was not an invite for everyone to scream where they’re from”. Finn Wolfhard just closed out the North American leg of the Objection! Tour on September 16th in Atlanta. The European leg will start again October 4th in Paris.