Foster the people confronted the crowd at the intersection of art and commodification on the Good Mourning Sunshine Tour.

Andrew Sherman for Dallas Observer

Mark Foster has always sold poison in a candy wrapper. Since “Pumped Up Kicks” first whistled its way onto the radio in 2011, his band has delivered dark news over sunny melodies. 

On Sunday night at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving, the Good Mourning Sunshine Tour made that strategy unmistakably visible. The stage held a tidy suburban home, and by the end of the night, it was on fire.

The “Pumped Up Kicks” group quite literally burned down the house.

Andrew Sherman for Dallas Observer

Sunshine on shuffle

Goth Babe opened at 8 p.m. to a venue roughly 40 percent full. The project, which is speared by Tennessee musician Griff Washburn, sounds like the same era that produced Foster the People — picture a “Twilight” soundtrack cut sitting next to a Washed Out deep track. That’s a compliment — those soundtracks were the best part of the films.

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Washburn greeted the room with an easy “Happy Sunday, y’all,” and wasted no time turning an amphitheater into a neighborhood hang. He was joined by Austin natives James Bookert of San Gabriel on guitar and Eduardo “Eddie” Torres on drums. Songs like “Moments/Tides” and “Sometimes” drew the most head-bobbing. “Encinitas” — played for a crowd-splitting competition — and “Weekend Friend” closed things out warmly.

The trio made the room feel full by sheer force of personality. Washburn introduced his bandmates and flagged their Texas roots, then introduced the plants on the stage.

“We got them at Michael’s,” he said. “They’re part of the family.”

He then split the crowd into Team James and Team Eddie, judging each side’s energy during “Encinitas.” The winners received a signed Hamilton Beach two-slice toaster launched into the pit. The losers: a signed banana. He also spotted a birthday in the crowd — “You promise it’s your birthday?” — and dedicated “Casita” to a Lucy on the spot with a bouquet of flowers.

The charm was real. The challenge was structural. Much of the set’s thump came from backing tracks, and in an 8,000-capacity amphitheater, that gap grows. The sound was album-perfect — almost too perfect. A keyboard player building those beats onstage would close the distance. Washburn’s between-song banter confirmed the vocals were live, and as a warm-up act, it worked.

Welcome to the neighborhood

At 9:15 p.m., with the crowd near 80 percent capacity, Foster stepped out of the front door of a golden-lit suburban home like a sitcom dad walking into a fever dream. Then, the vintage billboards appeared.

A pregnant woman on screen puffed Redhaven Cigarettes: “I’m smoking for two!” Elsewhere, a “Suck-o-Matic!” vacuum ad promised domestic bliss. There was a sign for an inflatable husband. Another showed a father and son holding guns above the words “Start ‘em young.” This is the band’s thesis in poster form: the American Dream has always been a sales pitch, and it has always had a price.

The larger-than-life billboard set design from the show on doesn’t feel like much of an exaggeration to reality.

Andrew Sherman for Dallas Observer

The venue shifted with each song. During “Waste,” it was engulfed in flames beneath a sign reading “Leave No One Behind.” Even the live feed was art-directed as the band appeared as glowing white outlines, then in underwater and alien-like filters. A camera dropped from the rafters on a wire. It looked, briefly, like Foster might sail over the crowd in the style of a Pink show. Instead, he sang directly into the lens for an intimate close-up, then walked back to a second camera mounted on the front door to do it again.

Critics have spent years waiting for Foster the People to recapture the momentum of their debut record, “Torches.” They miss the point. Plenty of bands sand their sound down until nothing remains, but Foster kept swinging. 2014’s “Supermodel” tackled materialism head-on. 2017’s “Sacred Hearts Club” chased psychedelia. “Lost in Space,” one of two tracks performed from 2024’s “Paradise State of Mind,” pulls MGMT, Empire of the Sun and Electric Light Orchestra into the same orbit.

Foster the People touring drummer Aaron Steele.

Andrew Sherman for Dallas Observer

Still, the set leaned smartly on “Torches” and “Supermodel.” Favorites like “Helena Beat,” “Houdini” and “Don’t Stop (Color on the Walls)” kept the floor bouncing. “Coming of Age” delivered its “bored of the game and too tired to rage” confession at stadium scale.

For his part, Foster barely spoke — no “What’s up, Dallas,” just a hand on his heart at the end. The performance did the talking, and its most eloquent moment came when Foster sat alone onstage with an acoustic guitar for “Goats in Trees,” climbing into a fragile falsetto before dropping to a startling low. The nearly 8,000 seats in the venue suddenly felt like a living room.

The LA indie-pop band’s latest record, “Paradise State of Mind,” was released in 2024.

Andrew Sherman for Dallas Observer

The two-song encore opened with “Sit Next to Me” and closed with “Pumped Up Kicks.” Foster has wrestled publicly with retiring that closing song — a warning written from the perspective of a troubled, violent mind that became inextricably linked to mass shootings in America. Now it’s a wound for many. In Irving, the crowd flailed in pure joy, lost entirely in the bassline.

That’s the paradox Foster the People have built a career on. The meaning sits in plain sight, and the groove makes it easy to look away. The house burned all night. We danced in the glow until 10:45 p.m.