April 25, 2026 – There’s a certain electricity to a room that knows it’s catching something early before the algorithm fully crystallizes it, before the venues get bigger than the feeling. Saturday night at Brooklyn Bowl Philly felt like that kind of moment, humid with anticipation, flickering between underground intimacy and something on the verge of scaling up. The bill was clean and intentional, Vayda opening for Lexa Gates; two artists who exist in adjacent but distinct corners of the same restless sonic universe.
Photos + Article by @a.j.kinney
Kicking things off was Vayda, whose set felt like scrolling through ten tabs at once, but somehow emotionally coherent. Her delivery toggled between playful and confrontational, tapping into that hyper online absurdity while still grounding it in something human. The crowd was already calibrating during her set, singing the word to her hits, word for word. By the time her set peaked, you could feel the room lock in. She undoubtedly set the tone for a night that refused to sit still.
This was my second time photographing Lexa Gates, the first being at the Foundry, a smaller room, a smaller crowd, a different version of the same artist. Back then, it felt like catching a signal through static. This past Saturday night though? The signal was loud, clear, and starting to echo, and the growth was undeniable.
Her stage presence has sharpened, not in a rehearsed, overly polished way, but in the way someone learns how to own a space. She moved with intention, letting songs breathe, making eye contact that didn’t feel accidental. As far as the fanbase? Noticeably bigger, with some familiar faces from the show last year. Louder. More invested. The kind of crowd that knows the deep cuts and screams them like secrets.
While her current tour rotation gives us a clear blueprint of what tracks to expect, standouts “Angel,” “Rotten to the Core,” “Stupid,” and “All Work No Play” have been staples, alongside more introspective cuts like “Nothing to Worry About” and “I Just Can’t Be Alone.”
Lexa Gates has been steadily building momentum over the past few years, with recent releases continuing to expand her sound, blurring the lines between alt rap, indie, and something harder to categorize. Her trajectory is pointing upward fast, with appearances like the Governors Ball Music Festival 2026 signaling that she’s stepping onto bigger stages soon. If anything, this tour feels like a transition phase, the last stretch of smaller rooms before things scale.
There’s a specific kind of satisfaction in documenting an artist twice, catching them mid mutation. I witnessed something similar a few years back with Chappell Roan, photographing her at Brooklyn Bowl Philly, and The Fillmore Philly before her career catapulted to superstardom. With Lexa, the Foundry show was the sketch, and Brooklyn Bowl Philly was the ink. Same artist. Different weight.
Lexa Gates is growing, tightening the chaos into something intentional, and something that sticks. If this trajectory holds, nights like this will start to feel less like access and more like hindsight. Catch her now, while the rooms still feel like rooms.
