There was a moment at The Wild Honey Pie’s Pizza Party with Lucius last Thursday night (Sept. 17) at The Eden in Santa Monica when the distinction between a concert and a pizza party seemed to evaporate.
About 150 people gathered to eat pizza, make new friends, sit around a fire pit and, ultimately, turn their attention toward a tiny stage. Everyone watched the beloved indie-pop band play a stripped-down 30-minute set accompanied by a string trio. For some hardcore fans, the chance to see Lucius performing up close on a stage only 18 inches off the ground was special enough to elicit tears of joy.
The setting was a sharp contrast to what awaited Lucius the following night: a performance at the Hollywood Bowl in front of thousands.
That difference is essentially the point.
The Wild Honey Pie, the NY-based creative studio, has spent more than a decade experimenting with ways to make the distance between artists and audiences feel smaller. Its Pizza Party series is one of the clearest expressions of that idea. Combining food, music, art and community, the gatherings are designed to put artists and fans in the same room in a way that a traditional concert often can’t.
“We’re trying to create an environment where everyone in that room is going to be listening to Lucius for the rest of their lives,” says Eric Weiner, founder of The Wild Honey Pie.
Hundreds of people entered the lottery and RSVP process hoping to attend. A line eventually stretched around the block.
Once inside, guests encountered the kind of details that have become a Wild Honey Pie signature: handmade mugs with telephone-cord handles created with Verizon, marinara pizza pennants from Oxford Pennant, limited-edition stickers and Shure friendship bracelets. A tomato-and-ginger vegan cookie was inspired by the ingredients in Mimikai’s bug spray. Open Water kept everyone hydrated, while a one-of-a-kind, hand-painted red rotary phone allowed guests to leave personal messages for Lucius.
As is the case with all of The Wild Honey Pie’s events, the branding was there. But as Weiner points out, these partnerships help make these events possible.
“It’s meant to be a VIP experience without the VIP price tag or snootiness or pretentiousness,” Weiner says. “What we try to do is just create an environment where it’s not too crowded — where people have some space to spread their legs and kind of relax.”
That intimacy is intentional. The Wild Honey Pie’s dinner parties typically bring together 50 to 80 people, while its Pizza Parties generally accommodate between 100 and 150. Even some of its larger gatherings have historically topped out at only a few hundred guests. For Weiner, calling a 5,000-person concert “intimate” stretches the definition.
Thursday’s Lucius performance offered a different scale entirely. With the band essentially at eye level, there was little separating the musicians from the people watching them. For longtime Lucius fans, it was an unusually close encounter with a band they’ve followed for years. For newcomers, the short set offered an accessible introduction before they could spend the rest of the night talking with other guests.
“You get some time to chat,” Weiner says. “And then you’re shutting the fuck up for the performance and dialing into what’s going on on stage.”
The connection between Lucius and The Wild Honey Pie made the night particularly meaningful. The two have been working together since 2011, when Lucius hosted The Wild Honey Pie’s Honey I’m Home sessions. The band later performed at some of the company’s first Beehive events.
A decade and a half later, the relationship has come full circle. The night after Lucius’ performance for 150 at The Eden, they played alongside Orville Peck in front of 17,000+ at The Hollywood Bowl.
The Pizza Party also demonstrated how The Wild Honey Pie sees its role extending beyond simply putting artists onstage. The performances are often filmed as live sessions, with the possibility of eventually releasing the recordings as live albums. The company also purchased hundreds of dollars’ worth of Lucius records, had them signed and gave them away to guests, along with signed posters.
The idea is to leave people with something tangible.
“In the age of AI, we’re the people doing everything from scratch,” Weiner says. “It’s all handmade.”
That approach runs through the company’s larger operation. The Wild Honey Pie’s posters are created by real artists. Its stage banners are hand-stitched. Its events incorporate physical objects, food and experiences that are purposefully analog.
Weiner says his company’s “secret weapon” is simply “being thoughtful.”
“How do we make sure that people in the room know how special they are and are feeling that love?” he says.
That approach also extends to the company’s charitable work. The Wild Honey Pie says its events are now structured as fundraisers, with ticket proceeds donated to nonprofit organizations. Since launching that program last year, the company says it has donated more than $65,000 to charities.
Thursday’s event benefited Food & Water Watch, which fights for safe food, clean water and a livable climate. Because admission was offered through a lottery and RSVP process rather than traditional ticket sales, the event also included a charity auction and a suggested $100 donation. The final amount raised was still being calculated after the event.
The Wild Honey Pie is also increasingly interested in what happens when its events end. Weiner says the company is developing a new website designed to bring together its recordings, articles, podcasts and artist-focused features. It will also provide technology intended to give musicians more ways to tell the stories behind their records. Weiner envisions album pages that could include track-by-track commentary, behind-the-scenes photographs, works-in-progress and other material that gives fans a deeper understanding of the people who made the music.
That mission — helping people fall in love with artists and albums rather than simply songs — has become central to the company’s identity.
More and more, the music economy is being shaped by algorithms, while it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish human creativity from machine-generated content. The Wild Honey Pie is betting on something more tangible: putting people in the same room.
Its approach isn’t limited to concerts. The company has staged dinner parties, summer camps and ski weekends, including a 2024 trip featuring Local Natives, Gus Dapperton and Rubblebucket. Weiner says he’s planning the return of some of those larger experiences — think 500 or so people — at some point, while continuing to develop its smaller gatherings.
With good food, a favorite band, a room small enough to see the musicians’ faces and the chance to actually talk to the people around you, Thursday’s Pizza Party with Lucius offered a pretty good argument for the power of bringing people together.
For the 150 people at The Eden, there was nowhere else to be. And for The Wild Honey Pie, that’s exactly the idea.
