SPOTLIGHT

BY THE TIME THE MUSIC STARTED AT THE ECHO—on Thursday night, it was hard to see the room as just another showcase.

Friends were greeting each other, artists were moving around the room, family members were present and people who had worked together for years were helping make the night happen. There was a familiarity to it that you could feel before anyone stepped onstage. Mad Lettuce MGMT had brought together three of its artists—Jonah Roy, Biking With Francis and Paco—to celebrate everything they had been building since the company began in 2021.

But the night also comes at a moment of transition.

Jonah Roy was performing his music live with a band for the first time in two years. Biking With Francis was returning to the stage after spending the last year writing and recording their debut mixtape, BRONCO. Paco was coming off major tours with artists including Tommy Richman and greek, along with a new publishing deal. And the Saturday after the show, Paco and Jonah—along with their guitarist, producer, best friend and fellow Mad Lettuce client Maxwell Vossberg—would be leaving Los Angeles for New York.

For a few hours, though, everyone was in the same room.

Paco had already been thinking about that during soundcheck.

“I feel like we've had a lot of wins in our career and a lot of ups and downs,” he said. “But with Matt, he's not just my manager, he's a good friend.”

Then he looked around.

People he had met five years ago were there. People he had met only a month earlier were there too. Everyone was helping put the show together.

“I was like, ‘Damn,’” Paco said. “It's just so beautiful to see so many helping hands.”

That was probably the clearest description of what the night felt like.

“It’s not a one-man band at all,” he said. “There are so many people coming together.”

Mad Lettuce started with Matt and a single artist. It has since grown to nine clients and two employees, but Matt said the company has never been only about adding names to a roster. His focus has remained on artist development and helping artists grow beyond their audiences.

“The Iceberg was a community gathering,” Matt said. “Everywhere I looked was one of my clients, friends, cousins, friends of friends, new faces and so much more. Everyone collectively made up the whole scene. And it was magical”

For him, live shows are where that community becomes most visible.

“It's always at the live shows that I feel like the connection to the music and the community really comes out at a maximum,” he said.

That connection was easy to see Thursday.

This was my first time seeing Jonah Roy, Biking With Francis and Paco perform live, and what stood out was how comfortable they seemed around each other and the people working behind the scenes. There was no feeling of three unrelated acts being put on the same bill. They felt connected. You could tell these were people who enjoyed working together and felt at home around each other. Every single act put on an incredible performance, featuring full bands, special guests, crowd participation and more.

For Jonah, the night was a return. He hadn't performed his music live in two years, making his appearance onstage feel like more than just another set.

Biking With Francis was also returning after spending the last year focused on making BRONCO. Their debut mixtape marked a new beginning rather than simply another release. They flew into Los Angeles at 2 a.m. the night before the show and left at 5 a.m. the next morning, making the trip for barely more than a day just to be a part of The Iceberg.

And Paco was somewhere in between. His career had been moving quickly, but he was also preparing to leave the city that had become his second home.

Three artists, three different moments, all sharing the same stage.

“LA has definitely been my second home,” Paco said. He grew up in St. Louis and said one of the biggest things Los Angeles taught him was the importance of finding your people.

“Once you find your niche, your good group of people, they will back you up,” he said. “The biggest lesson I've learned out here is, once you find a good group of people, stick with them, and you will grow together and flourish in the most beautiful way possible.” That idea seemed to sit underneath the entire night.

The milestones surrounding Mad Lettuce are easy enough to list: production credits, major tours, label and publishing deals, albums and more. But Matt said even his understanding of success has continued to change as the artists around him have grown and evolved.

“Success is something you define on your own,” he said.

For him, part of the job is knowing what to do when an opportunity arrives—“capitalizing when these things happen and recognizing we have a moment”—while allowing the larger vision to continue evolving.

For Paco, success seemed less tied to any one deal or tour. Before going onstage, he talked about how much it meant to share these moments with people he actually cared about.

“A lot of what we do is intentional,” he said. “It feels great to do it with not just some people that you work with, but also people that you care about. Best friends, collaborators, everything.”

That intentionality carried onto the stage.

All three artists performed with the kind of energy that made it obvious this wasn't just another obligation on a calendar. There was passion there. Paco had told me before his set that he wanted his shows to give people a place to let go.

“We live in such an interesting time in our world,” he said. “If we can curate a safe space for people to come and enjoy themselves and just feel like they can dance, they can sing without any sort of hold back, I think that's the most important thing.”

Soon Paco and Jonah would be packing a U-Haul and driving to New York. Biking With Francis would be back on a plane after barely a day in Los Angeles, carrying BRONCO into whatever comes next. Mad Lettuce would keep changing with them.

Maybe that's what made Thursday feel less like a showcase and more like a family reunion. Everyone was celebrating what they had built together, but nobody seemed finished. In many ways, The Iceberg felt like just the beginning.