On June 8th, 2025, Annie DiRusso played an electric headlining show at Vivarium in Milwaukee, supported by Daffo. Staring at 8:00p, Daffo took the stage with their dark but fun and twangy indie rock sound. Daffo currently holds the record of being the band that has played Vivarium the most times since its opening in February of 2024. They have played the venue a total of 3 times, and revealed that Milwaukee is one of their favorite spots on tour. A few songs into the set, they played an unreleased song called βWhen Iβm in Hellβ, which will be on a new record Daffo is releasing in September. More information on this record is yet to be revealed. Preceding their song Go Fetch, lead singer Gabby Gamberg asked the crowd to bark and growl, which was a light-hearted and comedic moment of audience participation.
The audience was a very active part of this show. Someone in the crowd held up a sign that Gabby couldnβt read, and when they asked what it said, the audience member yelled out βI think Iβm in love with you.β There were also fans in the audience who made it known that they had seen Daffo four other times on this tour. This show landed on Milwaukeeβs weekend of Pride Fest, so they wished the audience a happy Pride Month. The next song, βGood Godβ, a boppy, angsty and catchy song about Gabbyβs relationship with God, begins with the lyric, βMy belief in a good god is ruinedβ¦β, really stuck with me as someone who also has a complicated relationship with religion. Daffo followed up the song about God with βQuick Fixβ, a softer song about ββ¦being a whoreβ. Gabby then talked about how itβs fun to hear Annie DiRussoβs songs every night and that theyβve started to hear her songs in their dreams too, but itβs okay because Annie DiRusso makes fire music. In the last bit of Daffoβs set, a guitar pick was broken, which is not the first time this has happened on the tour. They wrapped up their set with βThe Experimentβ, a bonus track off their 2023 EP Pest, that Gabby put down their guitar for to dance and play a train whistle and harmonica. I walked into this show not knowing a lot about Daffo, and walked out with their music added to my playlists.
Next up was headliner Annie DiRusso, an alternative/indie artist from Nashville, Tennessee. Milwaukee was the second to last show of her Back in Town Tour, which is showcasing her 2025 debut album Super Pedestrian. Her band came on the stage first and started to play βDerek Jeterβ, a chant based song that hyped up the crowd to get them ready for Annieβs opening song, βOvidβ. DiRusso followed this up with her song βLegsβ, which she played for her late night TV debut on The Jimmy Kimmel Show. After βLegsβ, she took a second to tell the audience a story about how she lived with a friend who didnβt make her pay rent, and when he asked her to start paying, she faked being a substitute teacher to make money. Toward the end of this story, myself and the majority of the audience, realized that she was just telling us the plot of the movie School of Rock which is a good ass movie, and served as the introduction to the song βGood Ass Movieβ. During this song Annie also introduced all of her band members as Annie DiRusso, which was a hilarious moment to watch from the crowd.
During her set, Annie also played her song βNine Monthsβ, which she wrote at 20 years old. I first heard DiRussoβs music on TikTok back in 2021 when she was promoting this song. I fell in love with her alternative sound and the raw emotion she sang with about these coming of age experiences. Annie introduced her song βWetβ, by talking about how much she loves the Great Lakes. She proceeded to talk about how she wrote this album in βParty Julyβ which is when she partied in July. She introduced βWearing Pants Againβ as the hangover song of the album. Upon playing the title song of the Back in Town Tour, a walking pad was brought out onstage, and Annie did some treadmill choreography. She promised that next time she comes back to Milwaukee, she would have better choreography with more treadmills, since this is a new thing sheβs been trying during shows. A special treat for the audience was when Annie and her band played a 75-second song that they recorded directly to vinyl when they were in Cleveland. βCleveland is my Miamiβ¦β DiRusso comedically told the audience. Closing the main set she played two older singles: βEmersonβ, which is about moving back in with your parents after living on your own as an adult, and βComing Soonβ, which is a song she wrote when she thought she was going to flunk out of college.
At the end of βComing Soonβ, Annie and her band collapsed to the ground as the crowd cheered on, waiting for an encore song to be played. After a minute of audience excitement, DiRusso stood up and began to play the heavy ballad of the album βItβs Good To Be Hot In The Summerβ. Right when the song began to pick up, the rest of the band stood up to join her for a powerful end to the set. Annie DiRusso is finishing this tour on June 10th in Saint Louis, MO, but has more festival shows coming soon, and will be opening for The Beaches on their upcoming tour. Catch Annie DiRusso live for a fun and chaotic night of great music and laughs.
