10 Years of Frankie Cosmos’ Next Thing

2016 was an incredibly important year for me. A lot of great music, shows, trips, and a lot of that actually revolved around Frankie Cosmos’ Next Thing. It’s an enduring record for me, and it’s taken on a new life a decade later. Where initially, the record was a cult hit with Frankie Cosmos playing small venues to, and with mostly friends, a few months later, she was playing Bowery Ballroom. 10 Years later, she returned to that venue to a sold out audience, with the song “Fool” off of Next Thing just going gold after going viral on TikTok and connecting Frankie Cosmos with a new audience.

Let’s keep it in 2016 for a bit, though. On April Fools Day, Next Thing was released to the world. It was significant in the long lore of Frankie Cosmos, or more specifically, the force behind the project Greta Kline. Zentropy, which released in 2014 was a bit of a break-out for Kline. With 50+ releases on Bandcamp as both Frankie Cosmos and Ingrid Superstar (among Kline’s alter egos, shoutouts Franz Charcoal), Zentropy was her first studio record, and felt like the most cohesive collection of Kline’s music at that point. And the songs were great, “Art School” is iconic, “Owen”, “Buses Splash With Rain”, “Leonie”, all among Kline’s best. (You can read my original thoughts on Next Thing here.)

Kline was also playing a lot of gigs in New York, places like Silent Barn and Shea Stadium in Brooklyn (not the baseball stadium). I even caught her playing in an Urban Outfitters in Brooklyn (even though I couldn’t see her behind a pole…). 

On release day, Frankie Cosmos played their first of two release shows at Shea Stadium. Both nights were opened by Anna McClellan and the band now known as Gabby’s World. As a joke, Greta, and Gabby introduced each other as each other, Greta as Gabby, and Gabby as Greta, at the time, they both had such similar vibes, mere photographs confused fans on Tumblr, this simply added to the confusion. 

But these shows were awesome, a great lineup of Kline on guitar/vocals, Smith on keys, David Maine on bass, and Luke Pyenson on drums. For a bit, this felt like THE definitive Frankie Cosmos lineup. By the end of the month, the tour circled back around, and we caught them both in Philadelphia at First Unitarian Church, and in Brooklyn at Market Hotel, again with Gabby’s World opening, as well as Yowler, the project of Maryn Jones. The return was pretty triumphant, and even included some sick choreography during “I’m 20”, including Jones and Montana Levy (of Sharpless).

In June, the band were on a covers showcase as part of the Northside Festival in Brooklyn, covering Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville, along with Ava Luna playing Histoire de Melody Nelson by Serge Gainsbourg and Deradoorian covering Black Sabbath’s Master of Reality. At the end of the month, they played a show saying farewell to New York’s iconic Other Music record shop. Ingrid Superstar at Elvis Guesthouse, and then the big Bowery show, this time with Lauren Martin on keyboards.

I’d be writing a long, long time if I covered all of the other Frankie Cosmos shows I’ve seen over the years, so check out the photos and videos in this article for some insight on what Kline was up to.

Now, we jump 10 years into the future, specifically, February 2026. Frankie Cosmos is on tour in Japan. The lineup is Kline, Katie Von Schleicher, Alex Bailey, and Hugo Stanley. I was lucky to be in Tokyo at this time, and caught them at Shindaita Fever on February 23rd. 

The show was a mix of new and old. The band released Different Talking in 2025, and it was the first time Frankie Cosmos truly became a collaborative affair between its members. That showed quite a bit in Shindaita, they were tight, and handing off instruments to each other. It felt like they had a ton of confidence in each other, and were creating some really great music. 

They also dug into the older tracks, hearing “Leonie” was a pleasant surprise. We got “So Blue” from 2019’s Close it Quietly. Then a bunch from Next Thing sprinkled through the set. One standout was “Margareta” from Different Talking, taken to new heights in a live setting.

It was also reminiscent of those days in the smaller venues in Brooklyn. At times I’d close my eyes and think I was about to see the old Shea couch. Or sneak out to the balcony. But it was also amazing to see an audience thousands of miles from there show their love for these songs. 

I also want to shout out the openers, Ålborg, who played as the doors opened. Fantastic, folky, beautiful stuff with trombone added in. Be sure to check them out. Mei Ehara also played before Frankie Cosmos, and her set was so undeniably cool. (apparently, Cameron Winter and Mac DeMarco were there too?)

The next day, “Fool” was officially certified gold, almost 10 years after the release of Next Thing.

The 10th anniversary of Next Thing featured a re-release, including some demos. A vinyl edition was cleverly titled Fool’s Gold. Along with the rerelease, a 10th anniversary show was announced for Bowery Ballroom. For the occasion, I brought an old camera, and tried to get into that 2016 mindset. Thankfully, Frankie Cosmos trivia was up on the screen so I could indeed brush up on the lore.

And if Shindaita felt like a blast from the past, the Bowery anniversary truly turned the clock back. This evening’s opener was Gabby’s World, just as it was for the initial album release shows. Neither Frankie Cosmos nor Gabby’s World have the same lineups, but to hear those songs, especially from Gabby’s World’s O.K. on that stage was just too perfect. Kline even came out to sing “Beast on Beast” with Smith, and then Gabby’s World played a cover of “awooga (i see)”, one of those many, many bandcamp releases.

Cosmos’ set kicked off with 3 tracks as a warmup, “Leonie”, “Young”, and “Vanity” before kicking right into Next Thing. Hearing an album played in its entirety is among my favorite things in life. And an album I’ve lived with for as long, and one as important to me as Next Thing, this hit hard. It was also awesome seeing a very young crowd have those same types of emotions and feelings I had 10 years ago to these same songs. There’s something that truly resonates about Kline’s songwriting, it’s so simple on the surface. It seems unrelatable, listing friends’ names, telling short stories of being on tour, but that’s what makes it so relatable. It’s human stories. Songs of love, friendship, frustration, anger. It was such a joy to experience it again.

And yeah, they indeed did dig up the dance one more time for “I’m 20”.

After Next Thing, Kline played “Sad 2” and “Do I Wanna Wonder Forever” solo before doing a closing run of tracks from various releases. The band, as well as Gabby’s World came back for an encore performance of “Being Alive”. Tradition at this point, each member of each band got a moment to sing the song’s chorus,

“Matters quite a bit, even when you feel like shit, being alive.”

It was wonderful being in that space and seeing so many familiar faces after ten years. That’s the power of music, seeing Chris B up front, or running into other friends in line, catching up with Gabby, it was like a high school reunion, but of people you actually want to see. Next Thing has been a staple for me over the last 10 years, and I can’t wait to see what it accompanies me through when it reaches 20. (washed up already)

In August & October, Frankie Cosmos will go on the road to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Next Thing, check out the dates and grab tickets below:

August 22 Green Lake WI – Avrom Farm Party
August 23 Chicago, IL – Empty Bottle
October 21 Los Angeles, CA – Lodge Room
October 22 San Francisco, CA – The Independent
October 25 Portland, OR – Aladdin Theatre
October 26 Seattle, WA – The Crocodile

Connect with Frankie Cosmos:
Greta Kline
Alex Bailey
Katie Von Schleicher
Hugo Stanley
—-
Gabrielle Smith
Lauren Martin
Luke Pyenson
David Maine
Aaron Maine