Thursday, November 10th, I traveled to St. Louis to see Omar Apollo in concert with opener Ravyn Lenae.
With her new album HYPNOS recently released in May of this year, Lenae featured many of the dreamy R&B songs from this record, including my personal favorites “Venom,” “Came,” and “Satellite.” Lenae and her talented band put on an amazing show. She is a prime example of an artist who sounds exactly like her record, if not better live. Her performance complimented what followed perfectly.
To no surprise, when Omar Apollo entered the stage, there was a true shift in energy. You could feel the excitement, including my own. The artist started the night off with a song from his new album called Killing Me. This song features a verse in Spanish, as the bilingual artist often mixes English and Spanish to create a unique sound, some songs being completely in Spanish.
Apollo’s new album Ivory made its debut in April of this year. This album truly has no skips. Every song is unique and extremely catchy. As someone who knew only a few of his older songs, I began listening to this new album and found myself surprised to be adding almost every song to a playlist. Needless to say, I wasn’t the only one who was able to learn the words to his songs. It felt like there wasn’t a soul in the crowd who wasn’t singing every word. As much as the crowd was enjoying their time, it seemed like the entire band was enjoying the performance just as sincerely. The most memorable songs of the night were “Endlessly,” “Invincible,” and “En El Olvido.”
Friends have expressed the magic of seeing some of your favorite artists at the concert venue called the Pageant in downtown Saint Louis, and now I finally understand the full extent of what they meant. This intimate venue allows you to feel close and connected to the artist that is performing from the pit all the way to the balcony. This concert experience was a rare one; one where everyone in the audience was your friend, there was no competition, pushing, or shoving, you could truly feel the love at this event. This concert was so much fun and one that I will not soon forget.