October 29, 2023
The Atlantis, Washington, DC
Week: 363
This week’s thing: I bought tickets to this show to see the opener, Nourished By Time. One of his songs came to me in a Spotify playlist and I loved it so much I streamed the new album it came from a handful of times. Now, no one I know has heard of this guy but I GUESS I’m on to something because Pitchfork rated that album the 5th best of 2023. Looks like I’m an official music snob now. I had not heard of the headliner, Vagabon, when I bought the tickets.
Music: 4/5: Nourished By Time was just as good as I’d hoped he’d be. I wasn’t sure what to expect in terms of his live performance since the songs are heavily produced and use lots of effects. Laptop in hand, he pretty faithfully recreated the sound from the album, but enough variation to recognize he really was performing live. Vagabon’s songs were okay. Good, but pretty run-of-the-mill R&B in my opinion.
Lighting/backdrop/visuals: 2/5: Not much to comment on re: either set. Pretty standard light shows.
Overall vibe: 4/5: Crowd was digging the show and the songs and it didn’t feel too packed, though I think it was sold out?
Bonus points:
Opener: +1 for Nourished By Time. If you don’t know him, check him out! Get ahead of the curve for once in your life!!
Stage banter: +1 for NBT again. I don't know if it's a stage persona or really him or a little bit of both but he's good a rude, dgaf thing going on that usually would sort of annoy me but I found it endearing on him.
Amount of green lighting: +1 for some green and some green-blue during the NBT set
Final: 12/15