This post was updated Feb. 22 at 7:34 p.m.

Fans will be “Chasing The Chimera” of a concert that could top Del Water Gap’s charming performance.

On Tuesday evening, the solo project of American singer-songwriter Samuel Holden Jaffe arrived full force in Los Angeles to rock The Wiltern. Touring his new album “Chasing The Chimera,” which was released on Nov. 7, the indie pop artist hit the stage at 9:20 p.m. as fans pressed against the barricade in anticipation. With an intimate stage design, commanding vocal range and excellent balance of fresh and favorite tracks, Del Water Gap took the LA venue and made it his own.

Known for his popular love ballad “High Tops,” and the ultimate yearner’s handbook, “Ode to a Conversation Stuck in Your Throat,” Jaffe took a slow climb to fame. The singer even pointed this out.

“This whole music thing has not been a straight line for me,” he said on stage.

The 32-year-old, Connecticut-born singer originally adopted the moniker Del Water Gap while attending boarding school in Millbrook, New York, having seen the name on a box truck. He then carried it with him when he pursued sound production studies at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University.

Now, Del Water Gap is spanning the U.S. and beyond with his new music, after a repertoire of notable tour performances in the last five years with Jeremy Zucker, Arlo Parks, Maggie Rogers and Niall Horan. The tour – joined by Texan pop singer Hannah Jadagu for about half the duration – will jam through the states and go abroad before ending in June at Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival in Manchester, Tennessee. At The Wiltern, the packed setlist of 19 songs lasted over an hour and a half, and Del Water Gap’s concert rang brilliantly with a mature stage presence and deeply personal nostalgia.

[Related: Concert review: Sophie Ellis-Bextor hypnotizes LA crowd with timeless tunes, infectious joy]

After a lovely opening performance by Jadagu, who swaggered across the stage in a flowing black skirt, Del Water Gap assumed the spotlight in a foggy purple flash as a prerecorded monologue rolled through the venue. Set against strobe lights beaming in the time to the opening song, “Small Town Joan of Arc,” Del Water Gap appeared wearing a white tank top and dress pants beneath a classic black jacket.

From the get-go, Del Water Gap established a personal concert environment not unlike the nature of his music, which he describes on Spotify as inspired by “romantic encounters and dimly lit rooms.” Joined by a drummer, guitarist, bassist and pianist, Del Water Gap shifted from indie to a pop rock sound with “Sorry I Am” and “Better Than I Know Myself,” which had the audience jumping and singing along beneath flashes of orange and blue. The stage – draped beneath a white sheet that floated up and down throughout the show – encapsulated the emotional, fluctuating closeness of the show, though it became unsettlingly claustrophobic and distracting at points.

Even when he picked up a guitar for several songs, Del Water Gap still traversed most of the stage, greeting fans along the way and singing out to the crowd with passionate cries. There was never a moment when the audience felt too big or too small for his presence, and Del Water Gap commanded The Wiltern with a valiant ease. Especially throughout the sultry five minutes of “Please Follow,” the singer captured the audience as he staggered and swayed with the lyrics, “In the garden, the little ways we’re growing / It’s seismic, but when it’s time to go, please follow,” before closing out the song with a rugged guitar solo.

The first act continued with “Doll House” from his highly streamed 2023 album, “I Miss You Already + I Haven’t Left Yet.” The track turned down the heat and leaned into the tense, emotional undercurrent that flows through much of the artist’s catalog. Amid cooler lighting, the singer grabbed a stool and guitar to lead the crowd through one of his softer, sweeter tunes. Thanks to the lyrical range and musical diversity of his discography, these tonal shifts felt resonant and purposeful rather than jarring – successfully moving the audience through a vulnerable journey of love, loss and redemption.

[Related: Concert review: Dua Lipa’s ‘Radical Optimism Tour’ has attendees levitating]

While Del Water Gap spent a good amount of time with slower songs – “Coping on Unemployment,” “Damn” and “Marigolds,” for example – the stronger portions of his show arrived with the momentum of “How To Live” and “Ghost In the Uniform,” both from his newest album, with the latter describing “a COVID-era fling, should’ve lasted a year / Got to half a decade later and we’re still here.” The crowd was equally energized for the rocking tracks “NFU,” “Beach House” and “All We Ever Do is Talk” – his second-most played song on Spotify with over 47 million streams – especially when he handed a fan a clicker to control the stage lights.

Packed with vigor and brimming with the need to grab a partner and dance, Del Water Gap’s performance kept its energy through to the end, surprising fans with a joyous cover of One Direction’s “Steal My Girl” and removing his jacket to let off steam for the hot-and-bothered hit “Perfume.” Finishing with his massive success “Ode to a Conversation Stuck in Your Throat,” the singer took one final trip across the stage and into the crowd as the building raged to the song’s drumming chorus and fans remained cheering up until the curtain fell. Flowing in full form like a vibrant “Quilt of Steam,” Del Water Gap’s concert weaved together moments of both sorrow and celebration to embrace an ultimate night of true romance.

“Please Follow” Del Water Gap as he continues his fiery World Tour.