Hey, everyone
Foster The People played “Pumped Up Kicks” at both album release gigs in NYC and LA on August 12th and 14th. This song is from the mega successful album “Torches” which swept the industry off its high-horse in mid-2011 with this iconic tune which stacked its own share of controversy as soon it went viral in early 2010. Though vocalist Mark Foster penned the track one day in sunny Los Angeles when he still worked as a commercial jingle writer, he, however, undoubtedly harbors resentment for even composing the tune in the first place. But first, a bit of history before we deep dive into today's dissertation.
“Pumped Up Kicks” hit the Billboard Hot 100 at number three, yet Foster felt the need to retire the track for good in 2019. “Something that I've been wrestling with,” he told Billboard. Although it was largely supposed to be about problems concerning mental health through the eyes of a troubled teenager named Robert, the frontman never intended it to be about a school shooting in the first place.
“I never say anything about a school shooting in the song,” he states, but he also says something chilling to follow it up. “But I also want to say that ten years ago when I wrote it it was a warning.”
Now that Foster The People released their fourth album “Paradise State Of Mind” the boys just played two gigs this week on August 12th and 14th, I can't believe they actually jammed the song as an encore finale. Skimming through a setlist for both shows I was happy and even surprised the boys brought the song back into rotation for both gigs. It is filled to the brim with nostalgia after all.
I appreciate Foster declaring Kicks was never implicitly about a school shooting, but he intended it to raise awareness about impressionable youth facing mental illness and gun violence. I remember when I first heard this track once it went outrageously viral in the mid-2000s. I was home alone one evening when, I actually don't recall what site or app I heard it on, but I laughed hysterically at how morbid it was, and I immediately read an article about its actual meaning closing out this experience.
I disappeared under the radar for eight years only to resurface May of 2022 as a born again Foster kid. Have the issues changed from gun violence, although it's still a major problem in our society, to perhaps something more severe than a pop song? I say this because Foster The People dropped “Supermodel” in March of 2014, but now a whopping decade later, we're facing a decrease of empathy amid the looming technological takeover as well as worshiping egocentric celebrities to our own detriment. Our priorities have shifted, but that doesn't mean our past problems are gone just because they're covered by newer problems.
I bring up “Supermodel” because in the modern age of artificial intelligence, it is now the biggest threat to mankind more so than gun violence. I think of the last track “Fire Escape” about how Mark Foster sings about a major city on the verge of collapse from mass hysteria. If Kicks was a warning, then the band's second studio effort is downright terrifying cautionary tale as it paints a dystopian future together with an increase of hateful acts sure to doom our species.
Check out the setlist above and the video below to see the boys perform “Pumped Up Kicks” in Bowery Ballroom on August 12th, 2024!