Sombr Brings Out Laufey & Cigarettes After Sex at Rapturous L.A. Fonda Theater Show

Sombr, the ascendant rockstar-in-waiting, brought his joyous “Late Nights and Young Romance Tour” to Los Angeles’ Fonda Theatre last night (Nov. 2) causing the packed house, filled overwhelmingly with young women and girls, to swoon, shriek, and croon along verbatim to the 20-year-old sensation’s varied set of rock, pop, dance tunes. Two of the boisterous crowd’s most apoplectic moments, of which there were many, came with two unexpected guest appearances:  Cigarettes After Sex’s Greg Gonzalez and Laufey, the sublime Icelandic-Japanese jazz chanteuse.

Sombr, On The Cusp of Stardom, Forges Fan Connection at NYC’s Pier 17

The latter came out for a duet of George Michael’s 1984 classic ballad “Careless Whispers.” The relatively faithful rendition to the maudlin original included a smooth sax solo that helped tether sombr’s falsetto and Laufey’s sonorous voice to the track.  At the song’s end, sombr presented Laufey with an enormous bouquet of flowers and then held up a “Laufey Land” banner.

Her appearance followed an earlier cameo by Cigarettes After Sex’s Greg Gonzalez, who came out to perform “Apocalypse,” a track from the group’s 2017’s self-titled debut. “If you were to ask me my favorite artist for a lot of high school,” sombr said from the stage, “I would have said this guy’s name. He is someone who I really look up to, I’m a huge fan of him and he’s just a legend, man. Please welcome to the stage Greg of Cigarettes After Sex!”  After rapturous applause died down, sombr said, “We’re going to play a very special song, it’s called ‘Apocalypse,’”  which brought the crowd back to an ecstatic fit before they settled in to sing along to the languorous tune.

If you haven’t yet seen and/or heard of sombr, you will soon as his star continues to rise. He’ll be on “Saturday Night Live” this coming weekend (Nov. 8). And songs like “12 To 12,” Undressed,” and “We Never Dated,” off his new album I Barely Know Her (Warner Records) released in late August, are now an inextricable part of the soundtrack to 2025. When his first national trek— “The Late Night Tour” — was first announced in April, his dates were to take place at smaller venues like Manhattan’s Gramercy Theater (capacity 650)’ but because of overwhelming demand, it was moved to Pier 17 (standing capacity: 3,500).  With two additional NYC dates, Nov. 5 and 6, at the 1,800-capacity Brooklyn Steel added.  In Washington, D.C., sombr went from The Atlantis (450 cap) to The Anthem (6K cap); in Austin, he went from Empire Control Room (350 cap) to Stubb’s (2,500 cap); and in Los Angeles from the El Rey (771 cap) to two nights at the Shrine (5K cap) on Oct. 28 and 29 and The Fonda last night.

Sombr is managed by Box Artist Management and repped by UTA. While his touring data is relatively limited this early in his career, Pollstar Boxoffice Reports include his two Pier 17 shows (promoted by Live Nation), which grossed more than $323.4K on over 7,167 total tickets, from a relatively reasonable $45-average ticket price on the primary market. On Oct. 10, sombr sold 3,663 tickets and grossed $164,709; on Oct. 9, he sold slightly less tickets at 3,504 and grossing $158,735.  Sombr’s only other Boxoffice Report is an international show four months earlier on May 25 at Dublin, Ireland’s Academy where he grossed $33,035 on 805 tickets sold for an average ticket price of $41. Obviously, it’s not quite apples to apples as Dublin is not yet as lucrative a market as his hometown, but his star has risen exponentially since then.