Sombr was 11 songs into his Milwaukee concert when a water bottle became the night’s most unexpected hazard. The 21-year-old singer chipped a front tooth while taking a drink during his November 3 performance at Fiserv Forum, his fourth reported onstage dental mishap.
The damage was already visible on the arena’s video screens, according to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel music critic Piet Levy. The musician, whose real name is Shane Boose, briefly stopped the set to ask the crowd how bad it looked.
The stop was part of his You Are the Reason Tour, with The Last Dinner Party and Hannah Jadagu opening. Just over a year earlier, Milwaukee audiences had seen him at a sold-out Eagles Ballroom show at the Rave.
His debut album, I Barely Know Her, arrived in August 2025 and reached the Billboard 200’s top 10, as Warner Records announced the following month. He also received a Best New Artist nomination at the 2026 Grammys.
Sombr Borrowed a Fan’s Phone to Inspect the Damage
A fan near the stage handed over a cellphone so Sombr could examine his mouth using its camera. Once he had a proper look, he announced the return of “Thombr,” the nickname he adopted after an earlier chipped tooth left him speaking with a lisp.
“Make some noise for me, I’m really tough. Rock star,” he joked, according to PEOPLE. The interruption did not end his performance. Levy reported that Sombr went on to whip his microphone around by its cord during “Crushing” and repeatedly showed his teeth to the cameras throughout the remaining set.
He also joked about getting new veneers now that he had made it in Hollywood. Before the night was over, he spray-painted “Thombr Loves Milwaukee” onto a flag, carried it through the crowd during “Back to Friends” and waved it from a platform at the back of the arena.
An Earlier Microphone Collision Left His Team Searching the Stage
In March 2025, Sombr shared performance footage on TikTok with a caption saying his tooth had fallen out during “Back to Friends.” He asked followers whether he should keep it. By a June 19 appearance on the Capital Evening Show with Jimmy Hill, he was describing two accidents from his earlier North American tour.
During a Los Angeles performance, he said, he jumped from a ledge and struck his tooth with a metal microphone when he landed. He did not realize the extent of the damage until he left the stage and felt a gap between his teeth. His team returned to search for the missing piece, according to the interview excerpts published by On the Radio.
After having the tooth repaired, he damaged it again at another show. He told Hill that he liked the chipped appearance, but his team wanted it fixed for the cameras. “I thought it was cool but they’re trying to censor the tooth,” he said.
At Brooklyn Steel on November 5, 2025, he announced a third incident after performing “Come Closer.” PEOPLE reported that he called it a sign the concert was going well and joked that he wished it had happened during a more energetic song. He told the audience he had chipped his tooth for New York.
Milwaukee Fans Got a Phone-Free Encore
The arena show ran an hour and 44 minutes, with a 17-song set and a five-piece band, Levy reported. Sombr spent some of it away from the main stage, singing “Would’ve Been You” while seated beside fans in section 116.
Reading signs in the crowd produced another exchange. He agreed to sign vinyl records in return for a bottle of Purell. He then insisted that the fans hold up their end of the bargain and hand over the sanitizer.
Near the end of the night, Sombr asked concertgoers to put away their phones for a second performance of “12 to 12,” letting the audience take over the lead vocals. Most obliged, according to Levy, even when Abigail Morris and Georgia Davies of The Last Dinner Party climbed out of the pit to dance beside him.