Benson Boone Rocks Rolling Stone’s Future of Music Showcase at SXSW

“I’m ready for this year,” Benson Boone told Rolling Stone in a January interview for his new cover story, one of four for our annual Future of Music issue. “I’m so rested, and my mind is so clear. It’s unbelievable.” Boone, of course, is just coming off a major year, with his unstoppable “Beautiful Things” the most-streamed song in the world in 2024. Now, he’s got a new album, American Heart, on the way. One stop along the road to an even more major 2025: Rolling Stone’s third-annual Future of Music showcase at SXSW, which Boone headlined on Tuesday night.

Before the backflips and skycraping vocals, though, there was a night of diverse sounds at Austin’s ACL Live at the Moody Theater. The evening kicked off with Duplexity, the duo of Beverly Hills siblings Savannah and Luke Judy. Augmented by five musicians, they launched into a full-throated mix of songs that leaned toward Nineties alternative and metal — and filled the room with a fairly epic energy. (Luke rocked a Flying V.) 

“We’re transsexual women, goddammit,” said jasmine.4.t as she took the stage. The Manchester, England-based singer-songwriter is the first U.K. signing to Phoebe Bridgers’ Saddest Factory label, and her boygenius-produced LP, You Are the Morning, features frank and beautiful songs about life as a trans woman. Jasmine.4.t, in shorts and rainbow hair, flanked by a bassist, drummer, and singer-violinist, took time out to speak her mind from the Moody stage.

Before performing the album’s title track, she launched into a heartfelt, minutes-long speech. She talked about coming out as trans and the community she found in Manchester. She spoke out on behalf of the Filton 18, protesters held in England over a break-in at an Israeli arms factory near Bristol. She talked about the support Austin offers the trans community, how coming through immigration as a trans woman in Texas can be terrifying, and how she’s not allowed to use certain toilets in North Carolina — “something no other musicians have to think about.” Then: “This is a song called ‘You Are the Morning,’ and I hope that all of you here can be part of the new morning that’s coming and the bright future for trans people.” The violin-led song indeed felt something like a rather lovely morning. “Guy Fawkes Tesco Dissociation” was another highlight — a gently chugging, big-chorused number that you should have in your life (and on your playlists).

The evening then went from Manchester to Brooklyn. Next up was Laila!, a singer-rapper-producer who’s earned co-signs from Tyler, the Creator, among others. Still in her teens, Laila! (who’s the daughter of Yaasin Bey, a.k.a. Mos Def) topped Billboard’s TikTok Top 50 chart with “Like That!,” a self-produced earworm, and followed with “Not My Problem,” an addicting R&B jam currently at 50 million streams on Spotify. At the Moody, flanked by a DJ, Laila! bounced around the stage, played a sampler, sat at a keyboard, and took us through her very good Gap Year!, her entirely self-produced album that captures the highs and lows of adolescence. She noted she was under the weather, but you wouldn’t have known it. 

Hannah Bahng then came out and dived into moody, moving songs full of heartache and honest reflection. Born and raised in Sydney, Bahng is the daughter of South Korean immigrants, and initially considered a career in K-pop (her brother Chris, stage name Bang Chan, is the leader of Stray Kids), but ultimately went in another direction. Songwriter-producer Ellis Miah summed up that direction in a recent RS profile of Bahng as representing “a new generation of singer-songwriters who are unafraid to be unique and sometimes even a little quirky.”

Fans in Austin greeted Bahng with screams and cheers as she bounded through songs from her The Abysmal EP — including the title track, which features the bon mots “Fuck me dead/Yes, I swear/This is the beginning of familiar ends.” Dressed in burgundy leather pants and a white tank that said “Mother,” Bahng treated the crowd to an unreleased song (“Sweet Satin Boy”) and a Bon Jovi cover (a heartfelt rendition of “Livin’ on a Prayer”). Backstage, post-set, she talked about how happy she was to be at the showcase, and gave away adorable plush keychain toys she designed.

By this point, the Moody was packed, 2,700-plus fans buzzing with anticipation. DJ Mel — known as Obama’s DJ, thanks to gigs at the 2012 Democratic National Convention and 2013 inauguration — had kept the energy going all night long, and dropped a particularly dope Charli XCX remix after Bahng left the stage.

Boone came out in typically dazzling attire: a sparking jumpsuit with matching vest and headband. He launched into his deeply catchy new single, “Sorry I’m Here for Someone Else,” treating the crowd to his first flip of the evening — off the piano — midway through. 

Boone is a classic showman: athletic, charismatic, possessed of a remarkable, high-octane voice. On “Drunk in My Mind” — a 2024 song he introduced by asking the crowd, “Have you ever hated somebody before?” — he hopped on the piano again; no flip this time, but he did show off his insanely stratospheric falsetto. 

Part of Boone’s onstage charisma includes crowd work; at one point he ended up in a long, unexpectedly intense conversation with a single mom who had some less-than-positive feelings about her ex. He introduced “Slow It Down” as “one of my favorite songs I’ve ever created,” and crushed it — leading to another flip off the piano. 

In his Rolling Stone cover story, Boone talked about his upcoming album, American Heart. “A lot of it,” he says, “is very Bruce Springsteen, Americana, like a little more of a retro vibe.” Boone played a handful of new songs from the album, including “Young American Heart,” about a near-fatal car accident he got into with a friend as a teenager, and “The Mama Song,” a lovely ballad about his mother.

Boone, in that cover story, also noted that “Beautiful Things” is “not really a song you can half-ass, you know?” Tonight, he certainly didn’t half-ass it, climbing on the piano for the “Please, stay” chorus as the Moody sang along with him, then performed his final flip of the evening — mid-chorus. After “Beautiful Things,” Boone thanked the crowd and waded into the throng to shake hands. He popped back onstage, gave us a handspring, and left the stage with a tight, assured leap — a rising star in the midst of his ascent.