LIVE MUSIC
10/08/2025
Djo runs it back for Another Bite Tour with Post Animal
Bigger venues, overnight lines and fans who knew exactly why they were there
By the time Djo’s second leg of his 2025 tour rolled around, fans were lining up at midnight just to get close. That’s probably the easiest way to explain how things changed.
Six months earlier, the Back On You Tour still felt like the beginning of a new chapter. Of course, fans were already showing up early, trading crafts in line and meeting internet friends in real life, but there was still some uncertainty around it. The idea of being a headliner was new, the album was new and everybody seemed to be figuring it out at the same time.
By the Another Bite Tour, we’d moved far, far past this.
People were camping out overnight, flying in from other countries, buying each other breakfast in line at 5 AM, trading photocards and friendship bracelets, comparing Djo tattoos and finding people they knew from fan accounts. It felt way more organized and dedicated this time, as if the fanbase had spent the last six months figuring out how to be a fanbase.
The same crowd was there, kind of. But the level of intensity skyrocketed.
More girls. More custom outfits. More people who knew exactly what they wanted from the day before doors even opened. The crowds were twice as big as the first leg, but the shows still managed to feel close.
Joe seemed more comfortable too. He talked more between songs, messed around more and interacted with the crowd more naturally. The Crux had been out long enough for people to actually know it, and the deluxe version gave the set new songs to work with without making it feel like a different tour.
“End of Beginning” still hit, of course, but people knew The Crux. They knew “Charlie’s Garden.” They knew “Back on You.” They weren’t just waiting around for the viral song that brought a lot of them in.
But Joe Keery being Joe Keery is always going to be part of the context. Stranger Things put his face in front of a lot of people, and “End of Beginning” made Djo impossible not to know online. But Another Bite didn’t feel like a room full of people waiting to see an actor go on a musical side quest. It felt like a Djo crowd.
Djo is easy to get wrong if you’re only half paying attention. Actor makes music, song goes viral and to the top of the charts he went. People love a shortcut when they don’t feel like doing the work. Yadda yadda yadda.
That read didn’t hold up in these rooms. And Post Animal made sure of it.
By this run, they weren’t playing like a band trying to win people over from zero. They’d found their footing with this crowd, and the crowd gave it back. People were singing with them loudly, especially in Kansas City, where Joe came out during their set for several songs and the crowd fully lost it.
It made the connection feel less like background info and more like something alive in front of everybody that they, too, are an indirect part of. That’s where the whole collaboration started to make more the biggest impact on me.
Sure, crowds were bigger, they knew the songs and the moments, Post Animal found their confidence, Joe seemed more comfortable, but the shows didn’t feel label-level “corporate” or sealed off. It felt more settled, like everyone, including the fans, knew where they slotted into the bigger picture.
By the encore, “Chateau” gave people the older song they wanted, and “Flash Mountain” with Post Animal turned the ending into a party with everyone onstage, friends in the room and fans doing their best to headbang it out.
In six months time, it went from feeling like people discovering Djo to knowing exactly why they were there.