After a decade of releasing music, Jeremy Zucker is ready to return home, but he’s doing so across the globe on his Garden State Tour, in support of the album by the same name. Zucker is an alternative, indie-pop artist from Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, who began making music as a child with his two older brothers. He moved across the country to attend college in Colorado, where he started releasing music on SoundCloud and Spotify. From there, his career began to take off, gaining interest from blackbear, who eventually cut a feature on Zucker’s 2017 single “talk is overrated,” as well as Chelsea Cutler, his frequent collaborator on the brent projects, which include the double-platinum single “you were good to me.” Now, a decade after he released his first singles, he’s reflecting on what got him here, particularly how eager he once was to leave his hometown behind, and how long it took him to accept the ways it shaped him.
Zucker took the stage in the dark, carrying an acoustic guitar case. He sat on stairs, strumming the intro to the titular track of his new record. The first songs came from this latest album and carried a laid-back feel, with Zucker standing at the mic, guitar in hand. The setlist spoke to the notion of no longer running from what made him, spanning every era of his music, even if they are sonically very different from this new direction. A series of old hits and B-sides began with the high-energy, high school love story “18,” followed by his early works and collaborative songs “better off” with “scared” and “brooklyn boy” coming further down the setlist. Throughout the set, the backdrop on the enormous video wall was a suburban home, changing with the seasons and weather, mirroring the themes of the album. There were also home videos starting with Jeremy and his siblings as children, playing in the yard, moving through time, showing them playing in bands in high school. The familial thread continued as Zucker introduced his band, featuring his brother Todd.
The final third of the set was all about crowd moments. During “Cry with you,” Zucker brought a couple on stage to sing along with him. Nervous from the mix of stage lights, thousands of eyes, and sitting beside one of their favorite artists, they giggled their way through the performance. For the first song of the encore, Zucker reappeared with a camo “hat-cam,” which he then placed on a fan in the crowd. He closed the night with a high-energy performance of “supercuts,” where he jumped around, dropped to his knees, and dangled his mic over the crowd amongst flashing lights. Fans of any era of Jeremy Zucker or general fans of genre-defying indie-alternative should be sure to check out the Garden State Tour at one of the many upcoming dates through the end of the year.
GALLERY: Jeremy Zucker at Brooklyn Bowl in Nashville, Tennessee (September 23, 2025)
