Hollywood’s Fonda Theatre was buzzing with excitement Friday night in anticipation for Yoke Lore to come onstage and kick off the weekend with his bright, upbeat music. Wearing a casual t-shirt and baggy jeans, he had the classic boy-next-door look with his banjo and infectious energy as he sang and danced across the Fonda’s stage.

Adrian Galvin, former drummer of Walk the Moon, is a singer-songwriter now better known as Yoke Lore. He first embarked on his solo musical project in 2016 with the release of “Far Shore,” his debut EP. While he has yet to release an album, his 2023 “Holy Havoc” EP tour has garnered publicity across the United States in preparation for his first full-length album, “Toward A Never Ending New Beginning,” which is set to release on Sept. 22.

girlhouse, a Los Angeles-based bedroom pop band, took the stage first, earning an overwhelming amount of audience support in their humble six-song set. Singer and band frontwoman Lauren Luiz delivered an unpretentious performance as the audience sang along for her hits, such as “knuckle tattoo” and “the fatalist.”

Part of girlhouse’s cool-girl appeal appears to come from the sheer relatability of their music. Luiz admitted to the audience that she has “a tumultuous relationship with L.A.,” having lived on-and-off in the city for about 10 years. Luiz uses the song “pretty girl in la” to convey her uncertainty in making L.A. home.

“I wrote this about trying really, really hard to fit in here, so this one’s for you all,” Luiz said, aiming to strike a familiar chord with her local audience.

Despite their short set, girlhouse passionately performed “concussion,” the band’s most popular song, garnering more than 10 million streams on Spotify. With blindingly white lighting and fog effects that encircled Luiz like a halo, the entire band was surrounded by an ethereal, heavenly aura for its parting gift to the audience before conceding the stage to Yoke Lore. 

As the green velvet curtains rose after a brief intermission, the stage was pitch-black while the audience waited in nail-biting anticipation for Yoke Lore’s enthusiastic voice and acoustic instrumentation. As the dim, yellow spotlight shone down on Galvin, the audience erupted into cheers of excitement as they met their fluffy-haired star face-to-face.

The handmade stage backdrop that featured “Yoke Lore” in white block letters and a colorful, collage-style collection of paintings gave a homey and comfortable feel given to the already-intimate venue, in addition to Galvin’s multimedia engagement with the audience.

Between songs, Galvin voiced philosophical messages to his audience that were prepared in advance on paper, which at times seemed somewhat arbitrary and bizarre.

“I want to tell stories about how memories, relationships, apprehensions and big dreams fold us all together. I think the best way to explore those emotional and spiritual connections is through the potency of personal narrative, and music is how I use the personal to conjure the infinite,” Galvin said before crumpling up the paper and throwing it into the eager crowd.

Besides the intermittent speeches he prepared, Yoke Lore’s one-hour set was extensive, featuring his earlier hits, new songs from the “Holy Havoc” EP, unreleased tunes to look out for with the release of his album next week and covers of ’80s and ’90s classics. With the goal of keeping some of his upcoming music a surprise for the album drop, perhaps Galvin felt compelled to perform some music that was not his own.

His first cover was a folksy, banjo rendition of Savage Garden’s 1997 “Truly Madly Deeply,” complete with stripped-down vocals for the modern take on one of his childhood favorites. The second cover was of Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time,” an unexpected and arguably incongruous choice that included a surprise cameo from Galvin’s brother, Noah, an actor known for playing the titular role in Broadway’s “Dear Evan Hansen” from 2017 to 2018. As they sang together, the brothers’ voices harmonized unusually, due to their contrasting vocal styles.

Nonetheless, Galvin’s admirable zest for performing was palpable through his frenzied dance moves and headbanging for the entire set, most prominently seen in his performances of feel-good “Chin Up,” catchy dance anthem “Shake” and the hauntingly brilliant “Winona.” He closed out the night with “Beige,” an unconventional love song with more than 200 million streams to date; it comes from the 2017 EP “Goodpain,” which put Yoke Lore on the map of emerging pop artists to be reckoned with.

As Yoke Lore closes out the American leg of his tour next week with the release of “Toward A Never Ending New Beginning,” he lives out the promise of his upcoming album title on the journey to be taken on his upcoming world tour, which will carry him through the fall, winter and spring. Through the good vibes that he transmits to his fans across the globe, Yoke Lore inspires his fans to look hopefully to the future, no matter how uncertain it may seem.