Matt Berninger – Princess Theatre
Matt Berninger – Princess Theatre
Support from RonBoy
Written by Bella Cockle
Photos by Vincent Shaw
MATT BERNINGER 31/05/2026
Thanks to this years Open Season festival, we’ve been blessed with hosting an incredible array of bands and artists, including none other than Matt Berninger touring his solo works for the first time at Australian venues. This evening at the Princess Theatre in Brisbane, he was supported by multi-instrumental solo artist, Ronboy.
Ronboy’s act showed her skilfully shift between midi-supported bass riffs and layered keyboards. Her powerful, alto voice initially floated on top of dream-pop melodies, but then soon transitioned into grungy, dark rock. Ronboy musically commandeered the stage, as though she was conducting several versions of herself playing in time. The atmosphere became darkly ethereal and moody, you could tell it was pulling the heartstrings of those of us in attendance. Deceptively softly spoken, Ronboy detailed a captivating, crushing piano ballad about not receiving the unconditional love that you were initially promised – it was clear why her music so suited Matt Berninger’s tour. Speaking of the man himself, Berninger made his presence known for a performance of his and Ronboy’s collaborative track ‘Disaster’. She then performed a new song from her forthcoming EP, Get Rich, called ‘Brass Knuckles’ – another bass-heavy, exciting track that made me put the release date in my calendar. It was a brilliant opening set; Ronboy has mastered the complex art of using shoegaze-style repetition in her lyrics only to the point of hypnosis, rather than redundancy.
Matt later entered the stage with his three-piece musical outfit featuring none other than Ronboy (formally announced as Julia Laws) on piano and backing vocals, and Sean O’Brien on the acoustic and lap-steel guitar. After introductions, Berninger launched straight into a full 18 song set with ‘No Love’ from his latest album Get Sunk. His distinct, intense voice travelled through the audience as he wandered the stage, announcing his lyrics like a casual sermon.
Per Matt’s request, this was a no phone-filming/photography show, which created space for a deeply attentive and intimate audience. I was initially conflicted about not being able to take a digital souvenir of my night, but I know now that it made for an infinitely more personal experience; I’m sure not just for myself, but the artist too. The intermissions between tracks involved detailed origin stories for each upcoming song, and credits for the talented individuals he had worked on them with. We witnessed one of the more satisfying uses of the harmonica that I’ve ever heard live pulled out for ‘Distant Axis’; even more amazing was the fact that Berninger accredited his learning of the instrument entirely to YouTube instructional videos.
The audience was captivated by Matt’s obvious emotion in ‘All For Nothing’ to the point of an eerie silence, until he climbed into the crowd almost in a plea to convince us of his message. Soon after, we saw a superb duet between Julia and Matt for their joint track ‘Silver Jeep’. ‘Nowhere Special’ evolved into an intense spoken word piece that broke through the soft, sombre atmosphere of the evening so far as Berninger traversed the expanse of the stage, a wandering monologue. He followed this by performing a select few The National songs including broken-hearted ballad ‘I Need My Girl’ and ‘Terrible Love’; within which Matt pulled himself into the crowd to sing to us with as little distance as possible. At this point the crowd had completely taken over the chorus and bridge. The evening rounded off with two beautiful tracks to complete the encore: ‘Inland Ocean’ and ‘Light Years’. The trajectory and aura of the night left me feeling vastly more vulnerable and intimately aware of my feelings, Berninger had managed to further cement himself in my mind as the true king of yearning and devotion. The glorious harmonies between Matt and Julia, in tandem with Sean’s consummate guitarwork made for a spectacular concert that I already can’t wait to reflect on in the years to come.
