Daniel Caesar @ Place Bell – 12 November 2019

Scroll this
Daniel Caesar at Place Bell

On November 12th, 2019, hundreds of people braved the cold to hear Daniel Caesar’s melodic voice and we were not disappointed. The Toronto born R&B artist is on tour for his new album CASE STUDY 01. He gained popularity in 2017 after releasing his more gospel-inspired soul/R&B album, Freudian. 

The first act, which was supposed to be MorMor, unfortunately, did not perform, so the audience waited impatiently for Daniel Caesar to come out. It was worth the wait. The Canadian musician is loved by his fans and you could tell from the audience’s screams and cheers that they were so excited to see him. 

He came out and performed “CYANIDE” first, from CASE STUDY 01. The stage was set with curtains on which were projected silhouettes of the background vocalists. Throughout the set, the projections changed along with the songs he played; from silhouettes of the various musicians in his band, music videos of the R&B artist singing, strippers pole dancing, to Kali Uchis dancing during “Get You.” This added to the show’s atmosphere and made for a pleasing aesthetic.

Before his third song, he introduced himself to the crowd but did so in French, which made the audience roar. There were many special moments that demonstrated the audience’s love for Daniel Caesar, and there was no shortage of the audience’s knowledge of his songs’ lyrics. When he performed the songs from his previous album, Freudian, this became especially apparent. 

To the audience’s surprise, Sean Leon came through three songs into Daniel Caesar’s set. He introduced the fellow Torontonian rapper as his brother. They hugged it out and then performed “RESTORE THE FEELING,” a song from CASE STUDY 01 on which they collaborated. 

He brought out his acoustic guitar around midway through his set, to which a girl in the audience screamed to him to marry her. When he performed “ARE YOU OKAY,” the audience waved around their phones’ flashlights which made for a dreamy vibe. Then he sat down to perform “COMPLEXITIES” and “Hold Me Down,” which gave the performance a more personal feeling and really showed off his astounding vocal abilities. 

When he performed “Get You,” along to the projection of Kali Uchis dancing seductively behind him, the whole crowd sang along. When he performed “Best Part” right after, Daniel Caesar let us sing the first three whole verses in unison, which was, if I may say so, the Best Part. We could hear the gospel influence in this song especially.

His last song was “SUPERPOSITION,” which was a good closing song to a dreamy and mellow show. After which he introduced his entire band by name individually, which I thought was wonderful. Finally, he told the crowd how incredible they had been and wished them safe drives home in the snow. However, the chants brought him back onto the stage and he played an encore, one of my personal favorites from his earlier songs, “Japanese Denim.”

Review – Sarah Mance
Photos – Ramy Elhoufy

Share this :
FacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmailFacebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Submit a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.