Concert Review: Adi Oasis
April 26, 2023
On Friday, April 21st, Adi Oasis played in front of a packed and energetic room at World Café’s Lounge. The show, which comes as a part of her Lotus Glow Tour, is in support of her latest album. Following the show, Kevin and I shared some thoughts on Adi Oasis’ live show, the magic of performing without backing tracks, our favorite moments from the show, and more! Here’s our conversation:
Stanley: We first saw Adi Oasis in late 2021 (it was our first show post-quarantine!). I'm interested in what you thought about this most recent show, given we saw her not too long ago. Did this most recent show meet your expectations? Did it exceed your expectations?
Kevin: This show was interesting. I feel like maybe the way I can phrase it is like this - I feel Adi Oasis through a slight curveball, in a good way! I came in expecting something along the lines of last show. But off rip, I noticed that the band set up was different as I noticed there was no guitar player present. In 2021, she had the full band setup and at this show, at first, I was kinda thinking that the band was missing something (backup singers, guitar player, etc.). But as we settled into the show, I felt like Adi and her bass were front and center. Now, I’m not sure if that was the plan but with the slightly stripped back sound/band, it allowed for more attention on Adi. And, honestly she shined!
We saw every tool in her arsenal on display. I really appreciated that she transitioned into songs like they were medleys and it gave the new album and overall catalog new life. So I appreciated some of the new arrangements. But let me not get in the weeds too much!
Stanley: Yeah, I would echo a lot of what you said! I thought she was incredible: her vocals were strong, her bass playing was excellent, and she showed great stage presence (as always).
I also wanted to riff on something you mentioned regarding the band construction. Unlike a lot of contemporary touring acts, she doesn't use backing tracks. For those that don't know, backing tracks (sometimes called "stems") are pieces of a recorded song used for live performances to try to emulate the recorded, studio version (i.e. the version of the song most of us are familiar with).
Beyond artistic purposes, artists will use backing tracks for practical/financial reasons too. The orchestral arrangements, the horn parts, crazy stacked vocals make records sound great, but it costs a lot of money to bring all of that on the road with you.
That said, Adi Oasis was playing with a 3-piece! Bass, Keys, and Drums. What they pulled off was realllllly impressive! Like, I'm not saying 'oh they sounded good for a 3-piece' - they sounded good (and full!), period. There’s a real magic that comes from not using backing tracks, too, because you’re not on a sort of ‘recorded schedule’, which means we probably don’t get those spontaneous groove moments and such with the tracks.
So, anyway, shoutout to Ben Jamal Hoffman on keys and vocals and Caito Sanchez on drums.
How did you feel about hearing these new tunes live for the first time?
Kevin: Yeah man, I came in kinda hype to hear these new jawns! And it’s funny. The songs I came in hype to hear aren’t really the ones I left thinking about. For example, I’ve played Naked (which features Leven Kali) everyday since the show. And I thought the song was just okay/fine on the album but hearing it live, I was radicalized lol. The groove is so crazy. Hearing it live changed my connection to the song and now I love it. Dumpalltheguns was another one to me that really worked live and now play it constantly.
How did you feel about the new songs in person?
Stanley: I thought the new tunes sounded great! We can talk about all the other other stuff - lights, band construction, choreography, etc - until we're blue in the face, but it means nothing without the songs, and she has them.
We've talked about Lotus Glow being one of our favorite albums from this year offline a bit, but I think Adi Oasis took a real leap forward on this album. I thought the new tunes really display her versatility, and depth, as a producer, songwriter, and vocalist.
I loved that the set list early on was pretty much the order of the album - grooving on Le Départ to start was great, then transitioning into Get It Got It felt good. I loved hearing songs like Serena, in which she talks about Serena Williams as a source of inspiration, and Dumpalltheguns, which is about state violence against Black people.
Though, I do wish she talked about the songs a bit more between songs (when there wasn't a medley - or maybe even talk about how she came up with the medley!). I think this is really just my desire to have every concert turn into VH1 Storytellers. But, I thought the songwriting on this album was especially good and just wanted to hear more about her writing process.
Once Adi put down the bass for a song toward the end, she turned the place upside down.— Kevin
If you could take one moment from the show -- or more! -- to bottle up (digitally?) both for yourself and to share with somebody, like 'this is Adi Oasis!', what moment would that be?
Kevin: Great question! Okay I think my choice for this may be biased because of the energy in the room. Once Adi put down the bass for a song toward the end, she turned the place upside down. It was a great changeup to let her work the room a little more freely without the bass on her. I wish I knew what song that was but the energy in the Lounge noticeably went up. So if I could, I would bottle that moment and say - “this is Adi Oasis everybody!”
You got another moment that hits for you?
Stanley: Oh yes - Gypsy Woman, the Crystal Waters cover! That was really good. She/the crowd always turns up for that!
Ok, I have a couple, they're both medleys.
During the encore she played Multiply then transitioned into a cover of Do Me, Baby. Listening to her -- and looking at her stage performance -- it's hard not to see her in the genealogy of Prince.
The other one -- this completely made my face melt -- she did like 3 or 4 songs straight early in the set where she went from Red To Violet -- slowed the tempo down to transition to a cover of Aretha Franklin's Day Dreaming -- then worked in a key change on the hook to get to her song Twilight. Like, what? That was such a euphoric feeling hearing all of those songs together. I also thought they were these sort of interesting connections between songs, conceptually, too.
But I think these two moments are indicative of who she is as an artist, as well as what it means to be rooted in a tradition yet imagining new things as well.
