In celebration of his 2025 record Violent Dream, American emo singer Johnnie Guilbert made his way to Europe for the very first time. After getting through the UK the week before, his first mainland Europe show took place in Amsterdam on January 25th in the Melkweg OZ.
A lot of Johnnie’s idols, like Never Shout Never, had their first Dutch show in the same venue as he’s playing this cold January evening. Supporting Johnnie tonight is Wendy Moore, a Dutch pop-punk artist, who shares that playing the Melkweg OZ is a dream come true for her as well. Wendy immediately connects to the crowd, getting them to dance along with ease. Her Twenty One Pilots cover of “Heathens” gets most of the crowd singing along and loosened up. The room is already properly filled up with fans, who all arrived early to get as close to the stage as possible for Johnnie. Wendy ends her set with the sweeping ‘Tangled Wiring’ from her 2025 EP of the same name. While understandable she played a well-known cover, her own music gets you so carried away, it leaves everyone wanting more.
Before the doors even opened, Johnnie Guilbert warned his fans through Instagram that he was feeling a bit under the weather. He asked his devoted fans to help him out by singing along a little louder, and they’re all more than happy to oblige. As soon as the American emo artist walks up to them, they instantly prove how loud they can actually be for him. In return, he has lots of interactions with his fans, connecting with them all throughout the show.
Johnnie Guilbert’s appearance and music is deeply inspired by the MySpace era. Everything reminds of the 2000s emo subculture, with the black hair dye on haircuts obscuring everyone’s eyes, and lyrics referencing zombies and vampires. Its not hard to get swept away in the nostalgia of it all, pretending everything is as easy as it was back then. Johnnie offers an escape from everything in the now, just now with iPhones instead of Sidekicks.
While the music on the record sometimes feels a bit cliche and outdated, supported by guitarist Noah Christian and drummer Charlie Tilton in the live set, the songs sound a lot more elevated and alive. The music really feels a lot warmer when it’s performed live, even if Johnnie’s voice isn’t completely cooperative tonight.
You can tell his music certainly means a lot to his fans, and just as appreciative of them, Johnnie keeps talking with them as much as possible in between songs. A lot of phones get grabbed by him during the show, all filming him from every possible angle, and the red Sharpie comes out of his skinny jeans in between every song to sign everything they hand him, including phones, photo prints, flags and ID cards. By the end of the show, during “Vampire,” he even makes his way to the middle of the venue to sing alongside his fans. With how much the fans had been screaming “I love you” all through the night, it’s a wonder his shirt didn’t get torn off; but seeing the holes in it, it probably wouldn’t be the first time. Even dealing with a bad flu, he wants to give his fans his all, and you’d have to be really cold to not be affected by his charm by the end of the show.
The American singer can’t stop apologizing for his lacking vocals tonight, and promises to come back to Europe soon to make up for it. The next two shows he was supposed to play, in Paris and Milan, got cancelled soon after Johnnie stepped off the OZ stage. He will continue with the remainder of the tour on Friday, ending the tour in Cologne on February 3rd. Tickets for the last shows are running low, but can still be found through: https://johnnieguilbert.com/pages/tour.
GALLERY: Johnnie Guilbert with Wendy Moore at Melkweg in Amsterdam, Netherlands (January 25, 2026)
