On February 5th 2024, New Jersey born 070 Shake made history at Toronto's History venue as part of her Petrichor tour. Opening for her was Bostonian composer and producer Johan Lenox. He showed off songs from his 2024 album "I Guess We'lll Find Out" along with a number of original classical pieces he had written. He was accompanied by local Toronto cellist/producer Brendan Thomas and violinist Yegee Lee.
As he explained during his set, Johan always hires local musicians to sightread and play his music. To end off his set, Johan performed a intimate sounding unreleased track. Backed by a driving drum beat, lush string harmonies and gentle piano chords, it had the vibe of the ending of a summer camp movie where two unlikely friends bond over a shared love over an obscure television show and familial trauma.
Next up was Houston-born R&B singer-songwriter Bryant Barnes. He performed songs from his 2024 album Vanity and other songs like "Why Can't You". During my time in the photo pit, he made an effort to get close to the audience and personally greet his fans.
His heartfelt vocals reached deep into the crowd's ears that night and after his set, I could tell Barnes had made some new fans that night. Nearing the end of his set, he asked for all the stage lights to be turned down and for the audience to "light this bitch up". Surrounded by the audience's phone lights, he performed a glistening performance of "I'd Rather Pretend". Backed by the audience's collective voices, that song made me a fan of Bryant Barnes in one fell swoop.
Finally, 070 Shake took the stage from behind a translucent curtain. Illuminated by lights and smoke, she began dancing behind the curtain as her guitarist started strumming. Balbuena performed a back to back run of "Sin", "Elephant" and "Pieces of You", later moving in front of the curtain. While the tour is named after her most recent album "Petrichor", Balbuena ensured that she'll be playing "a mixture of all three of her albums" and that she's proud that everyone has been able to witness her growth over the years. Her on stage presence was electric and bombastic - her on stage musicians were prepared to play a mixture of songs rather than an exact set list.
In between songs, she called out to an audience member to come up on stage and show off her Modus Vivendi tattoo. Later on, she had an audience member request "The Pines" and was encouraged by Balbuena to dive into the crowd (though it was more like a clumsy dive into the crowd and I'm hoping no one was injured in the process). Regardless, she was having a lot of fun with the Toronto crowd. Her carefree attitude towards the set list showed her versatility, especially since many of her songs jump from energetic to somber introspection.
For "Cocoon", she ordered the crowd to open up a mosh pit and concertgoers gladly reciprocated with energetic roars and wild splashes of water from bottles. Just before playing the very piano forward track "Into the Garden", Balbuena commented on how she wanted to make Petrichor "an album you can really feel" with its instrumentals. While she didn't urge the crowd to focus on the opening piano solo and be silent, the audience slowly quieted down to witness the spectacle of the song. A projector displayed the blinking eye from her "Petrichor" album cover onto the curtain behind her, creating an almost dreamlike environment within the venue.
After performing a number of other songs like snippet of Kanye West's "Violent Crimes" and the synth heavy "Guilty Conscience", she ended her set with an encore performance of her outro portion of Kanye West's "Ghost Town". After singing the outro once, she cut the music off and told everyone to put down their phones and live in the moment with her.
From that point on, I turned off my camera, put away my phone and released my inhibitions run wild the way Natasha Bedingfield intended. For those few moments, History's audience erupted in a cathartic chorus. After headbanging to my heart's content, I walked out of the venue with a newly bought shirt from the merch table and the desire to listen to more of 070 Shake's discography. Overall, a fantastic performance to kick off my coverage of live concerts this year and I'm looking forward to future 070 Shake shows.
All photos and review by John Mendoza.
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