I found myself back in the pit for the first time since the last time and damn was this a special one. This time not only did I check off another adolescent idol on my shot list [Headliner, Miguel], but I also got to photograph my favorite artist on the planet, Jean Dawson. Suffice to say, neither of these guys disappointed.
Third time was absolutely the charm when it came to this night, as in my third opportunity to see Jean Dawson perform live [in as many years] I was finally able to photograph him in action. Each time I’ve seen [Dawson], I’ve seen him grow as a performer. There was a comfort in this show, an ease, even if that was just my perception, he felt truly and completely… there.
Jean opened the show with Boohoo banger “New Age Crisis”, a meanderingly electric kick of energy out of the darkness. The slow build of this song made it the perfect start for the show; pulling everyone out of the pre-show shroud and throwing them [gently] into the deep end. Crisis was followed up by Glimmer of God standouts “White Lighter” and “Black Sugar”, before jumping into Rock A Bye Baby, Glimmer of God cuts “Prize Fighter” and “Rock A Bye Baby”.
The crowd got every flavor of Jean’s current era, kinetic loathing and darkening pop explosions, tinged with hope, longing, and honesty. Closing out the set on a sentimental note, [Jean] played “Houston”, followed by “Darlin’”, which he dedicated to his father, a soon to be married, black veteran. In seven songs, we cycled through the full gambit of emotions, and dammit I wouldn’t expect anything less from he man himself.
I couldn’t recall for you the first time I heard “Adorn” or “Sure Thing”, or even “Lotus Flower Bomb” [yes, I am aware it isn’t actually a Miguel song], but Miguel has been apart of my musical upbringing since I was a young teenager. To say however, that this was the same Miguel that seemed to… appear out of the ether back in 2010, would not be entirely true. Miguel is one of my clearest examples of evolution in an artist. What I saw Sunday night was a full-blown rockstar, dripped in r&b soul.
I will never hesitate to call out truly exceptional production design, it is entirely too overlooked in my opinion; and in this case, Miguel’s production design was downright amazing. First off, the man appeared out of the fog, standing atop a literal upside down car [a bruised and battererd cop cruiser, no less], cloaked in a badass leather moto jacket; like I said, rockstar. He kicked the set off with a trio of CAOS cuts, first being “Perderme”, and followed by [title track] “CAOS” and “The Killing”. Just a couple songs later though, we slipped into our first run of classics, “How Many Drinks?” [as you might imagine, this alone damn near tore the roof off] and “coffee”.
This is a good place to mention that [to no fault of Miguel] the amount of people who passed out at this show was crazy; harkening back to 2022 when I shot a Kehlani show [under the very same roof]that saw without a doubt the most passed out fans I have ever seen to this day. The number of times Miguel was forced to stop the show so ailing fans could be attended to was simply too many; so PLEASE PEOPLE, DRINK WATER! What I will say, as far as themes go, this was certainly a chaotic show.
Crowd theatrics aside, I have taken way too long to address a very important part of, bot just this show, but the tour in its entirety, the politics. Both Miguel and Jean Dawson are Mexican-American artists. That’s always meant… something; but not more than it does RIGHT NOW. As this thing we all live under and within continues to crumble under white hubris, these two men embarking on a country-wide trek is the reason art is so important. I’ve loved Miguel’s music since I was a boy, but my favorite part of his show wasn’t listening to any song; somewhere between “New Martyrs”, “Triggered”, and “El Pleito” Miguel walked to the side of the stage, grabbed a can of paint from the shadows and proceeded to spray the [aforementioned] overturned car in red letters: ICE OUT. The crowd erupted, and the seasoned singer lead us all in a unifying chant, “1,2,3, FUCK ICE!”. What a beautiful sentiment, ringing unrelenting from the rafters
As for the rest of the show, there was obviously a lot more great music. Eventually [Miguel] made it to the go classics, “Arch & Point”, “Adorn”, “Simple Things”, as well as newer slaps “Oscillate”, “Nearsighted [SID]”, and more. In all, the singer played through 20+ songs spanning his decade and a half career, thus far. Though I missed the last few songs of the set in order to get back to my car before the garage I parked in closed (parking passes would be awfully nice @LiveNation *cough cough*), this show wildly exceeded my expectations. Start to finish it was, as the kids say, a movie. So, if I were you, I’d catch CAOS in a city near you, quickly.
IMAGE GALLERY BELOW!
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