Foster the People are ‘Coming of Age’ and Coming to Shrine Auditorium

Sandra Miska

Hailing from Los Angeles, Foster the People will be playing the Shrine Auditorium on Nov. 14. Having risen to fame in 2010 with hit “Pumped Up Kicks,” the band formed in 2009 after struggling musician/waiter Mark Foster impressed film student/drummer Mark Pontius. Pontius left another band to form a new group with Foster and Pontius’s friend Cubbie Fink, a bassist who had recently been laid off from his job at a television production company. The band was originally to be called “Foster and the People,” but that would soon change after enough of their friends misheard the name as Foster the People and liked that moniker better.

“Foster the People, that’s like ‘take care of the people,’ ‘do something for the people,'” Foster told USA Today. “The first few shows that we played were for charities. It kind of clicked: Foster the People, that’s us.”

Life wasn’t always sunshine and upbeat rock songs for Mr. Foster. Mark Foster came to Los Angeles shortly after graduating from high school in Cleveland, Ohio, and one of his early roommates was late actor Brad Renfro. Foster himself struggled with addiction, but pulled himself together after he realized the life of an addict wasn’t conducive to productivity.

“It got pretty dark,” he told Rolling Stone. “My friends thought I was going to die. I was blind to it. When I was 19 years old, it got to a point where I said, ‘Enough is enough.’ I saw time was just passing me by.”

Foster the People haven’t just left their mark on L.A. through their music, but through art as well.  To commemorate their second album “Supermodel,” the band commissioned a mural in downtown Los Angeles, a massive version of the album’s cover. Its creation in Jan. was documented in the video for the band’s hit song “Coming of Age.” Sadly, the mural was painted over in Aug., but Mayor Eric Garcetti offered the band a more permanent space for a new mural.

As for Foster the People’s upcoming show, it promises to be full of raw energy and stunning visuals.

Foster the People will be performing at the Shrine Auditorium. Tickets can be purchased here.