Concert Review: Steve Lacy @ The Metro Theatre

Gaining critical acclaim for his collaborations with Denzel Curry, Solange, and the production of ‘Pride’ off of Kendrick Lamar’s Grammy-award-winning album, DAMN, Lacy’s resume seems to be an endless list of production skills and an overflow of musicality. It’s no surprise that Lacy sold out his initial show at the Oxford Art Factory and was upgraded to The Metro Theatre (which he also proceeded to sell out). At 21, these are achievements that continue to make even the most grown adults feel thoroughly unaccomplished, and after releasing his debut album, Apollo XXI in mid-2019, Lacy’s already making (read: has made) a name of himself among the greats.

Dancing on from side-stage in an elegant salmon-orange linen set, Lacy seems to be one of few that has the spunk to walk out onto a relatively bare stage and immediately start the show. In front of a crowd of people that easily claims him as the youngest, Lacy seems more mature in his demeanour, launching into the album’s opening track ‘Only If’. Seeming self-assured and confident dancing about the stage, he miraculously maintained a silky-smooth tone as he moved.

Leaving little breathing room between his first track and second, ‘Like Me’ introduced a darker groove to his performance and a sense genuine turmoil with himself, also rooting us firmly in the sounds of Apollo XXI: “How many out there just like me? How many others not gon’ tell their family? How many scared to lose their friends like me? I wonder, I wonder.” An embodiment of 21st century experience of gender and sexuality, Lacy’s music explores a sense of fear, paranoia and acceptance with amazing fluidity in its more indie rock focused tracks like ‘Playground’ and ‘Guide’, showcasing a talent for falsetto and bass funk.

A melting pot of jazz, R&B and hip-hop, Lacy’s music is inextricably linked to its lo-fi, iRig aesthetic and stripped back production. Throughout the performance, it wasn’t uncommon for Lacy to alternate between playing guitar and bass, with all other instrumentation provided by a small DJ setup to the right of the stage. Aided by small moments of interlude and small talk, the show was spliced into various segments where Lacy would disappear and reappear in a lush silky gown and earrings dripping with smaller gems and stones. In one of the more exciting moments of the set, Lacy debuted a new track (twice) to the adoring crowd, warning that “it’s quite different”. Continuing his bending of genres, the new track didn’t stray far from his previous work, though begs the question: where does he go from here?

There’s no denying that Steve Lacy is a charmingly sexy, stylish and sensationally musical man. Aided by a talent in performance that will make you question whether he’s been doing this for a full 21 years, there’s a flare about him that screams ‘authentically edgy’. Cruising through luscious track after track, there seems to be no fear of venturing into galactically diverse tones and sounds in his crooning melismas.