Djo’s ‘Back on You’ tour was a holy experience.
(my shitty pic from brooklyn steel night 1 of 3; may 05, 2025 show)
setlist:
| 1 | Runner |
| 2 | Gloom |
| 3 | Link |
| 4 | Charlie’s Garden |
| 5 | Basic Being Basic |
| 6 | Fool |
| 7 | Figure You Out |
| 8 | Egg |
| 9 | Fly |
| 10 | Delete Ya |
| 11 | Lonesome Is a State of Mind |
| 12 | Chateau (Feel Alright) |
| 13 | Roddy |
| 14 | End of Beginning |
| 15 | Gap Tooth Smile |
| 16 | Potion |
| 17 | Encore: |
| 18 | Back on You |
| 19 | Flash Mountain |
ok so. oh my god. i did an album-specific review already, but now, the concert,,,him LIVE.
to preface: I’ve never seen Djo live or honestly actively listened to much of his stuff until the new album The Crux came out last month. I’d listened to the hits before and his old albums always came on my Spotify Recommended every now and then since high school.
**tmi i graduated hs in 2020 hahahahahahha. ok moving on.
So, the show was great. One of the better concerts I’ve been to in a long time.
Let’s get the boring stuff out of the way: The terrible wait outside in the cold rain for 30 min bc me and my friend showed up at doors and the TikTok fan base was clearly waiting for hours already so we had no shot of getting up close. The view wasn’t so bad. Except that I was behind the only two tall guys in my section so. Anyways. That was the bad part. Done.
Tbh, I’ve been solely listening to the new album for the entire month since it dropped until the show. We didn’t even get tickets until about a week before when some resale tickets were fairly decent. But this was still the thing I was looking forward to for weeks, even without tickets yet.
Specifically, Djo’s showmanship was really fun to watch. The way he would transition from ballad to peppy rock song back to the folk-y Potion gave an easy sense of rhythm to follow in the audience. I know from my avid concert-goer experience (Link to my playlist featuring every artist I remember seeing live, lol) that even with a show you’ve been waiting a year to see, you get, like, really f*cking tired. Fast. So the order of the songs really helped me not get cramps in my feet which I usually get, so that was a nice touch. Thanks Djo.
I was also surprised to see how much of the audience knew allll the songs he played. Usually with a new album tour, especially when the album dropped a month before the show, I’m used to everyone being kinda silent but trying to vibe thru the new stuff no one’s memorized yet, but it seems everyone’s gone hard with this album—obviously me too.
In my TikTok (Instagram Reels) research prior to the show, I noticed Fool was a big one the girls swooned for and, ngl that one,,, that hit. I understand. It’s the hips, as they say. It’s the perfect sexy song in a show everyone gets kinda (really) turned on experiencing. Figure You Out is also, sort of, a surprise to me that it would be on the main setlist because even though I really enjoy the song, idk it just doesn’t seem like a tour vibe. But I really really loved his performance of it. And the audience also really connected with that one. The ending hits just right the way the recorded version does.
Egg: I know this one was recently added in the Boston show until the final leg of the tour, and I am so fucking grateful it was. As per my review, it was my #1 song from the new album, and it surprised me to learn it had only recently been added to the setlist. I feel like many people on socials kept referring to it as his best—or at least one of his best—songs from The Crux, and after seeing Keery’s IG story where his dad teased the song being added to the setlist, I knew he would at least play it in NYC. Thank god he did. I know the song isn’t a typical concert choice, but the evolution hit just as beautifully as it did on the studio version, and you could tell the crowd was VERY pleased to hear it.
Figure You Out was one of my favorites from the set. It doesn’t seem like a concert pick, yet the performance really stuck with me. It’s a really beautiful song, and I’ve heard others say it was one of their faves from the tour as well.
Chateau (Feel Alright). Maybe my favorite song live. Not necessarily my favorite Djo song, but I don’t know! He played it so angelically, I was completely entranced. Maybe because it’s an old classic of his, he’s had plenty of time to perfect the performance…for me and me only.
Flash Mountain is as cool as you hope it would be live. That was of course the show stopper and made everyone go hard. It’s so different from his other music, especially the newest album, but its performance serves to remind us of his origins and his core-being as a musician…and it’s just really fucking sick.
Overall, awesome concert. If you have a chance to see him, 100% please do (I will hopefully see him again at ACL this October—very excited for that lineup).
One of my favorite concerts of recent—he’s so good at getting the audience hooked.
Rating: 8/10
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