Earlier this year Devonté Hynes gifted us with a brand new Blood Orange album titled Freetown Sound (out via Domino Records) and was instantly on everyone’s radar for top albums of the year (..and that was back in June!). If you haven’t already listened to it, I’d highly recommend listening to it as the album lives up to the hype and claims of being one of the years best. When Dev & Blood Orange returned back to New York City for a sold out hometown show at Terminal 5 in support of the fantastic Freetown Sound, anticipation was very high to say the least.
As soon as the clock struck 10, the house & stage lights turned off which was greeted to a giant cheer from the crowd knowing Hynes & company were about to take the stage. A single spotlight shined on a mic stand on the stage and slam poet Ashlee Haze slowly emerged from the shadows to perform the powerful opening track off Freetown Sound, “By Ourselves” as one by one the band took to the stage within the shadows. As it appears on the album, the song finished and segued seamlessly into the second song off the album, “Augustine” to which Hynes proceeded to stand up and step away from the piano and dance all over the T5 stage like I’ve never seen before. By the end of the show there literally wasn’t an inch of the stage that wasn’t danced on.
What was most impressive was seeing Hynes perform all these songs, and when I say perform I mean perform. He moved and grooved the entire night, easily dancing through most of the set (including towards the end while still playing guitar) with a level of energy I’ve never seen before. I’ve seen a decent amount of shows this year but this was something on another level, something truly special. It was powerful yet fun and emotional in all the right places and somehow still was able to hit on everything in between. If you get the opportunity to see him don’t walk, run to the nearest venue he’s playing at… you won’t be disappointed at all.
For more photos from the performance, see below:
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