On December 5th Omar Apollo brought his The Speed of Sound tour for a rocking sold out show at Chicago’s Concord Music Hall. The tour in itself is in support of Apollo’s latest EP Friends which dropped on April 10th. His pop sound has a mix of his Latin culture and flair. Playing alongside him, were artists Dijon and Silver Sphere.
Silver Sphere kicked off the night setting up for the night ahead. She is a 20 year old artist from Chicago. Her debut single Drinking Games was released in May 2018. Since then she released her debut EP Yikes! which features her songs Sucks 4 You and Boys in Bands. One song of hers that sticks out to me was “drinking games” due to it’s bittersweet theme of being in a relationship with someone who’s just using you and learning to find self-value.
Next up was the Baltimore based R&B artist Dijon Duenas, or simply just Dijon. In March he debuted his first EP Sci Fi 1 with songs like “Lace” and “TV Blues.” In an interview with VICE he says he aims to follow his own path with music and stay true to himself. He also states that his EP the song “Lace” is a tribute to Smog’s “Teenage Spaceship” and loosely about being abducted. Overall, Dijon makes music music that is raw and cuts deep into who he is as a person.
When Omar Apollo took to the stage it was like a storm of energy being unleashed into music hall. He kicked off his set with “Ashamed” and “Kickback” from his most recent release Friends and his single “Frío.” The style of music is pop with a jazz twist. The lyrics are very modern in the sense of relating to normal struggles with relationships which most people can connect to. From start to finish of his performance there was endless amounts of dancing and people just singing their hearts out.
