Article Contributed by Michael Stegner
Published on October 27, 2025
Papadosio | Riverfront Live | October 11th, 2025 – photos by Chris Stegner
Papadosio officially closed a major chapter in their career last weekend, playing their final show before taking an indefinite hiatus after nearly two decades of touring.
The concert took place at the outdoor stage at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Live, tucked away on a bend of the Ohio River. For longtime fans, the show was much more than a regular concert. It was a homecoming, a farewell, and a celebration of the community they’ve created since their first concert in Athens, Ohio, in 2006.
Having announced their upcoming hiatus several months ahead of the final concert, fans from throughout the country flocked to Cincinnati to send Papadosio off with a proper goodbye.
Ohio was the home of Papadosio for several years in their early career before the group relocated to Asheville, North Carolina, in 2010. While it is seemingly impossible to find an exact number, various archives and online concert lists put the number of Papadosio shows in Ohio somewhere around 150–180, with frequent tour stops in Cincinnati, Columbus, Athens, and Cleveland, among several other cities. Ohio has also played host to several Papadosio festival appearances, including Rootwire, Resonance, Secret Dreams, Hookahville, and others.
With nine studio albums, an EP, and multiple songs that are only heard in a live setting, the well of music that they could perform was deep. However, fans began taking note of the setlists at the shows leading up to Cincinnati to see if their favorite songs were played or not. With each passing show, the chances of hearing your favorite song one last time got smaller and smaller.
They opened the evening with the slow-building instrumental track “And This is What He Thought,” which set the tone for Papadosio’s signature flavor of jamtronica, before diving deep into their catalog with “By the Light of the Stars,” from their 2008 EP of the same name.
The sun’s rays cast a beautiful golden light on the “Papadosio Family” as they danced in colorful costumes and outfits adorned with the band’s signature half-moon logo. By the second set, the moon had taken the sun’s place in the sky and, while it was not a perfect half moon, with a little imagination and blurred vision, it complemented the night perfectly.
Up next came the lush, meditative soundscapes of “Versicolor,” off their 2020 album Microdosio. Dustin Klein, the band’s lighting/visual director, showed off his skills and textured the entire stage and venue with the band’s hallmark rainbow lights.
After “Versicolor,” the beginning notes of the band’s most popular song, “Find Your Cloud,” could faintly be heard before an eruption of cheers from the crowd, thrilled to have one last chance to “find their cloud and ride it round” before the hiatus. Midway through the jam, things got even more interesting when they transitioned into another fan favorite, “Curve,” which they played for several minutes before transitioning back into the conclusion of “Find Your Cloud.”
The sun had fully set by now and the band was locked into the crowd’s energy. The first set continued along with a funky instrumental track, “Shiitake,” before finishing the set with an emotionally charged “Epiphany,” which slowly built up, giving each instrument the space to breathe before its final culmination.
After a short set break, the band took the stage again and the dark and dreamy vocals of “Pool of Stars” complemented the musicality perfectly.
Continuing to choose songs from all eras of their career, their next song came from their 2009 album Observations. “All I Knew” turned the entire crowd into a puddle of love as Anthony Thogmartin’s groovy guitar licks had everyone dancing and smiling ear to ear.
Up next, one of the band’s most psychedelic dance songs, “Improbability Blotter,” reminded everybody that Papadosio are masters of the art of trippy music. The lysergic visuals paired with Mike Healy’s intense percussion had the crowd in a trance as they pushed the jam as far as it could possibly go. After an intense musical crescendo, they pulled back the energy for the next song.
“Just Like the Days” is one of Papadosio’s slower, moodier songs, but when juxtaposed next to “Improbability Blotter,” it showcases the depth and range of their songwriting skills.
The next song was rather fitting for their final shows. “We Can Always Come Back” is a bittersweet instrumental track with hopeful undertones. The song is always an emotional experience when they play it live, but there was an extra layer of emotion cast over the crowd during this performance. It was a hopeful reminder to everyone in attendance that Papadosio will be back again in the future — we just don’t know when.
Thogmartin echoed this sentiment when he spoke directly to their dedicated fans late into the second set:
“This whole thing was never just us. It was everybody coming up together. It was all of the support and love that we’ve received turned into something else — turned into music, turned into community,” he stated. “We can’t lose if you guys keep loving each other and keep staying together. You haven’t seen the last of us. You haven’t seen the last of our music. What’s more to say than we love you all so much.”
Nobody in the crowd was quite sure when the concert would end, so as it approached 11 p.m., the uncertainty grew into a tense hopefulness that they would continue playing late into the night. Unfortunately, this was not the case, as they began their final song.
“Paradigm Shift” is one of the few Papadosio tracks that has never found a home on a studio album or EP but has been played live countless times throughout their career.
The technicality and emotion behind “Paradigm Shift” make it one of their quintessential jam songs, with extensive layering that allows them to explore unique improvisations every time it is played. As the intense synthesizers repeatedly echoed the final notes of the song, it was apparent that this would be the final song of the second set. The band quickly and quietly left the stage for a brief break, as if they were playing a game of peekaboo with the audience. Surely they had something more to offer before calling it quits, right?
They returned to thunderous applause and screaming fans with smirks on their faces, as if to say, “You didn’t really think we’d leave you hanging like that, did you?”
As they started out in an unrecognizable jam, the music began to take a familiar form. The next thing the crowd knew, they were diving straight back into “Improbability Blotter,” continuing right where they left off earlier in the night. Once they fully wrapped up the song, they left their fanbase with one more all-time favorite. It was the perfect song to encapsulate their nineteen-year career and one that fans had danced to underneath the Ohio night sky countless times before — “Night Colors.”
The messages, stories, and social media posts have been pouring in since their final concert, showcasing how much the band has meant to its fans over the years. While they have confirmed multiple times that this is not the end of them as we know it, the future of Papadosio now remains a mystery. They join the ranks of several other jam bands from their scene over the past two decades, including Dopapod, Twiddle, Aqueous, and others.
Setlist:
And This is What He Thought
By the Light of the Stars
Versicolor
Find Your Cloud > Curve > Find Your Cloud
Shiitake
Epiphany
Pool of Stars
All I Knew
Improbability Blotter
Just Like the Days
We Can Always Come Back
Paradigm Shift
Improbability Blotter > Night Colors
